No Longer in the Human World
by SugerGPup-chan
Summary: Humans, Demons, and Love! OH MY! Three friends must now learn how to harness their 3 very different powers that has been locked away in their hearts. What happens when unwanted love comes into play? Death? Life? Sadness? Happiness? Memories?
1. Rescuing the 4Tailed Fox

I don't the character Youko.

_Chapter 1: Rescuing the 4 Tailed Fox_

_**Man, this is boring as hell! Why can't this old man just shut-up for once?! **_**Yep, just on ordinary day here. Nothing ever happens in this town. But I guess that's what Grandma wanted, to live peacefully. Don't get me wrong, I like living like that, but I just wish for once there was action in my life. I'm positive that Becky thinks the same thing. **

**Ding-Ding**

_**YEAH!!**_** I bolt out of there faster than a speeding bullet. "FREEDOM!!" I yell to the heavens. Causing the other students to look at me as if I am deranged. "What are you people looking at?" putting on a glaring face, needless to say making them go about their business. **

"**Well, that's one way to get people to leave you alone, huh Kitsune?" Becky says coming up from behind me. "You bet, Neko. Are you coming home or are you staying after school for something?" I ask. "I'm staying after. A couple of bone-headed boys failed, no scratch that bombed a test. So-" I cut her off. "in Becky's voice So I have to tutor them end of Becky voice. Right?" I say putting my hands on my hips and raising an eyebrow. "Yep! That's exactly right, Kitsune. So I'll see you when I get home?" "Yeah, sure." We give each other a friendly/family hug.**

"**Try to stay out of trouble, Gloria!" Rebecca calls out, as I ran to the entrance of the school gate. "RIGHT BACK AT 'CHA, REBECCA!!" I call back. **

_**This street is always busy. **_**Its true, one of the streets in this city-town is the busiest. As I wait for the walk light to turn green I see a strange looking creature on the other side of the street. It looks like a fox but it has 4 tails! **_**That's odd. **_**On further inspection it looked sick and hurt. The light changes to green and the few people start to walk across the street, even the fox! **_**Smart. **_**I stayed where I was I wanted to help it. But the strange fox collapses it tries to get back up sadly it falls again. NOW A CAR IS SPEEDING TOWARDS IT!! The fox looks in the cars direction it's frozen. I run into the road and picked the little fox up. "Got 'cha!" I said as rolled across the road. **

"**Watch were your going kid!" exclaims the driver and drove off. I looked down at the little fox panting slightly from the adrenalin rush. Then the little fox passes out its head landing on my chest. **

**When I got home I was very thankful that Grandma wasn't home yet. I go into the hallway pull down so the attic stairs can be seen. I walk up the stairs, carefully with the fox in my arms. I put it on my bed with great care. "Poor thing." I mumble to myself as I pet it gently on the forehead. I go to close the stairs/door to my room. Then I speedily and quietly went to the connected bathroom and got the first aid kit. I treat his wounds, he hissing in his deep sleep because of the sting. When I finished the work that was at hand I look at him. His left front leg had a slash on it, above his right eye was a cut not to deep but still drew blood, on his stomach was probably the serious of wounds. I also found out that he was poisoned of some kind. I found that out when I noticed that his fur was slightly wet and that he was panting heavily. I don't know what to do with the poison inside his little body, so I get a cold tamp washcloth lightly tap his head hoping that will work.**

**As the night progresses the tiny 4 tailed fox has not awakened. Both Grandma and Rebecca came home around 5:30-6:00 or something. They tried to get me to come out of my room, but I have not left the fox's side. Reading a book on demons, a book that Mark sparked my interest in years back. I look at the little fox, his breathing has returned to normal by now and that made me happy, but I was still concerned about his wounds. **_**How on earth did he get those, and be able to live? **_**I thought to myself. I looked at the digital clock; it read 12:30 am. I skipped dinner tonight no big deal. When I hear a rumble. **_**Okay maybe it is a big deal. **_**"Don't worry little guy I'll be right back." I kiss his silvery forehead and go to the stairs that lead me, downstairs to the kitchen.**

**+Youko's POV+**

**It's true, that my comrades and I got ambushed after our little heist. Most were lucky and got injured, but some were not so lucky. I and second in command, and best friend, were one of the lucky ones. But I took a few good hits to the body. Also poison, the poison that can kill a demon in an instant, but my being stubborn refuses to give up.**

**I escaped to Ningenkai, of course in my other form.**

**My body is limp from poison running threw my veins. I've never felt this weak before. These foolish humans don't even accept that I'm a demon.**

**Most of these humans are waiting at an intersection; I think that's what they call it. So I decide to wait for them to start walking. When a strange contraption changes from a red hand to a green walking person, people start to walk across the solid black river. So I better start walking as well. Due to the poison in my body I collapse to the hard river. I try to get back up but meet the solid black beneath me. I hear a roar of some sort; I look up to see the monster, or demon, of some kind heading straight towards me! Frozen in fear, and because of the poison, I can't move.**

**"Got 'cha!" A force made me roll over and in to someone's chest, my guess, female beings how it was well cushioned. Looking up my judgment was correct. A teenage girl with long dark brunette hair and chocolate brown eyes was looking back me, panting slightly. That's the last thing, last person I see.**

**In the deep sleep I was, from time to time I could still feel a burning feeling causing me to hiss in reaction.**

**I don't know how I long was out although I did wake, but I sensed another energy so I kept quite. Peeking one eye open I see it's that girl that, saved, helped me. Upon hearing a rumble from her stomach, most likely skipped a meal, she puts her hand over her tummy sighing. After saying to me, thinking that I was asleep, that she'll be right back she did the unthinkable: SHE KISSED ME… on the head!! But, don't get me wrong it was nice, but you would think that she'd know who I was with that book she's reading:  
****'_Demons of Maki.'_**

**She heads towards a certain area, pulls lever up then back down, a square appears on the ground (making the rug disappear), and lastly she grabbed some strange contraption making a light appear and walked down the steps.**

**Finally, I'm able to look at my surroundings. The walls were dark brown oak wood; the fuzzy/cozy looking rug was crimson red, end tables that were to dark oak wood; with Chinese vases on them and pictures; (in fact most of the furniture was dark oak), a double door closet, another door going to somewhere, a desk in the right direction of the room facing the bed (and some kind of things on it), and a comfortable looking chair that had crimson cushion. The bed I was laying on had dark oak framing, violet sheets, black blanks with silver trimmings with a diamond pattern going down, two big dark purple rectangle pillows followed by two smaller square navy blue pillows and one small square dark silver pillow (the bed was very comfortable by the way). Three windows where in the walls two were rectangular shaped with dark violet drapes drawn and one square window behind the bed-frame with dark violet drapes, as well.**

**And this girl's scent is very strong in here, causing my sensitive nose to inhale her scent. _She smells of cinnamon and roses. Interesting. _**

**An aroma of, chicken and fish? Along with two other scents hit my sensitive nose. _What strange scents._ I sniff the air trying to figure out what the scents are, but I'm cut short as in one area of the floor is cut out again.**

**+My POV+**

**I decided to get some chicken fingers, catfish, a diet soda, and Chocolate cake for dessert. I love chocolate!**

**Well anyway, I walk back to my bedroom. Pulling down the stairs, which acts like a door for me, I sense something strange up there. But then I remember the strange 4-tailed fox, so I shake my head to rid of the cautioned thoughts. Careful not to drop anything I walk into my room the stairs closing behind me (ME: I'm lazy so the stairs shall close/open automatically). Glancing at the small version dog I see him put his head back down quickly. I giggle at how he's acting so childlike. _So he's gonna play, is he? I wonder if he's hungry. _I take a seat by my bed again and take a bite out of a chicken finger with an evil smile. "Mmmm… this sure is good." I hear a little growl. I continue with this 'torture'. "Its to bad the little fox is not awake, yet?" I look out the corner of my eye, seeing the little fox eyeing my dinner.**

**"You want some?" I say, causing him to jump a little. "Hey, come on now. You must be hungry." Put a chicken finger in front of his face and moving it from side to side. When suddenly 'little fox' chomped most of it off. I blink several times to process what just happened.**

**Seeing that there was only a little left, I drop it into the palm of my hand so the fox could eat it without chomping my fingers off. Once he ate the rest I gave him the catfish, while I had the rest of the chicken fingers and finishing my soda.**

**When I finished the last bit of my soda I… burped. "Excuse me." Seeing the little fox sniff_ my chocolate cake_ I take it away. "Oh no you don't this is _mine! _Got it?" I could've sworn I saw his eye's starting to glow a gold color. "What?"**


	2. The Strange & Romantic Dream

**Please enjoy this chapter!**

**Ch. 2: The Strange/Romantic Dream**

After a small chocolate cake fight, I figured that it was time to go to bed. I went to my counted bathroom with my PJ's in hand.

The shirt had short sleeves, baby blue coloring, with an adorable red chibi fox holding a rose in its mouth in the upper center part of the shirt. The pants were long, baby blue as well, and little chibi foxes on it. Oh, and it's really comfortable!

Walking back out I see a lump under my black silver-trimmed quilt. I raised an eyebrow at this… _DARN MEMORY BALCKOUT!! _I really got to start remembering things better. Shaking my head I uncover the small silver fur ball. It suddenly jumps into my arms and begins to purr. "Well, your welcome." I say, figuring that he was saying 'Thank-you'. Putting him on the crimson floor, I go beneath all the blankets and the quilt I close my chocolate color eyes to fall asleep.

I barley feel the bed sink suddenly. Cracking open one eye, see the Arctic 4-tailed fox laying in front of my face our noses barely touching. I smile gently at this, sighing I hold up the quilt letting him know that he can go underneath. The fox goes underneath the nicely woven black/silver quilt, and snuggles up to me. _Well aren't you a cuddle bunny… er… fox. _

With a giant yawn, I close the open eye and finally able to enter my crazy/weird dream land.

_+Dream Mode+_

I can feel myself falling through the darkness of my dreamland. "OW!!" Sadly when I land, I landed on butt. With a groan of pain I get up while rubbing my sore bottom. "This is odd." I say looking around the blanket of darkness that surrounds me. "This isn't how my dreams start. Normally its something… really… weird?" Looking ahead of myself I see a white dot, getting larger and larger as it approaches me.

Taking one step back I'm slightly afraid. I've read books that if you see a white light approaching you it means that you're dead. I turn around and run as fast as my two legs can carry me. _"Don't run." _A rather masculine voice rung through the black nothingness, stopping almost abruptly, I look around. I'M STANDING IN A FIELD OF WILD ROSES!! "How on earth did this happen?" I ask no one unparticular. But looking up I see many countless stars, and what I think to be planets! "Wow, now this is a new scale of weird." I put my right hand above my eyes, like I normally do when I look out at a something bright.

The land I am currently standing in is absolute stunning! The thorns less roses (as I found out) were a very bright white and some have light- very light- silver tint around the edges of each petal; and there are magnificent mountains the, last thing I see is that there is a lake up ahead. The smell is equally amazing, nothing in all of my 15 years on this earth have I smelled something so sweet. "Almost angelic." I whisper to myself with a smile on my face.

"I assure you, mademoiselle, that it's something completely different." With a surprised gasp I turn around sharply, only to meet a (I must say) well-defined chest –well part of it. Looking up, from my wide brown eyes, I see calm gold eyes. "Hello." This man says, with a smirk.

"Hi." Is all can muster up to say at the moment. _This man is very strange looking. _He has two vibrant golden eyes that someone could get lost in, he wears a white toga like outfit, long silver flowing hair, on top of the silvery locks stood two very proud… fox ears? My chocolate colored eyes stare at them. I really want to rub them, but I resist.

A chuckle broke my thought on how fluffy they might be. "If you want, you can touch them." This 'fox man' bends his upper half, so that it would be easier for me to reach them although I'm still hesitant. "Go on. I don't bite... much." He smirks (showing his well pointed fangs) seeing my shocked face.

Putting on a brave face, I put my hands up and rub his furry fox ears. "They're so soft." I let out in a hushed whisper. Soon after I started to rub his ears, I hear purring? Looking up at the unknown fox man, I see that his eyes are closed and that he has a smile on his face. _Its because that I'm rubbing his ears. _I smile as I continue to rub Fox Man's ears; I don't know why but I'd rather spend this dream rubbing these fox ears them walk around this field of roses.

Out of the corner of my eye I see something. While I continue to rub his ears I look to where I saw the unknown thing. _There it is again! _It looked like a white tip of some kind.

When I feel something on my chest I look down, only to this Fox Man head snuggling into 'them'. "HEY!?" Pulling away I give him a harsh slap the right side of his face, the look on his face is absolute shock. _I guess no one really did that to him, before now. _I smirk with the reaction that I received.

"A girl with spunk." He took a short pause, while rubbing his right cheek. "I like that." he says with smirk. Truly, I didn't know weather to take that as a good compliment or a pervy comment. So I put my arms over my chest, Fox Man chuckled at my action.

A soft piano/violin melody runs through this rose scented air. I look around trying to find the source of the sound. But, a deep amused chuckle stops my search. "You won't find it, mademoiselle. That is for sure." Looking back up, I see that he's about 7 feet tall (maybe taller) and his golden eyes have a glint in them. I blink a few times while my head is leaning to the right with a clueless look on my face, for Fox man has his hand out. "May I have this dance?" he gives me a charming smirk.

"Uhhh…" I look down at his hand; I said the first excuse that came to my mind. "But I'm not dressed for it." I say looking up at him. He just chuckles at my pathetic attempt to get out of this.

"Look at what you're dressed in now." I do say he says. What I'm wearing is breath taking. I am wearing a white gown that has quarter length sleeves but the bottom half of it is loose sheer, semi-deep V-neck that has silver lace surrounding the outline, there seems to be a silver a belt that's connected to the flowing dress, lifting up the dress an inch or so I see the same type of silver lace outlining the bottom inch, I am wearing silver high-heeled shoes (which were surprisingly comfortable), and matching jewelry. I grab my dark brown hair seeing that it looks like it just got out of some fancy French salon, it's curly but doesn't feel there's a ton of hair spray in it, is pulled back by a silver beret (my guess), and feeling the top of my hair I feel something like a crown.

"What, are we dealing with royalty now?" Seeing that Fox man had a King's crown now -it's silver with white fur surronding the bottom and has citrine stones around it. His only response is another deep chuckle.

"So now that you're dressed for it, will you give me this dance?" his fangs twinkle in the full moons glow. Sighing I cave in and take his clawed hand. "Fine, but don't blame me if I step on your feet."

* * *

I am completely surprised with myself! I am dancing in a formal way, and NOT breaking someone's foot! _Well I guess I have to thank, uhhh… Darn it what's his name?! _

"What's your name?" I say looking up at the smirking Fox man.

"Its only polite to introduce yourself first." His smirk grew wider at my irritated face.

But I put on a smile and introduce myself to him. "My name is Gloria, Gloria Arishima. Your turn."

"The name's Youko, Youko Kurama." After chuckle and a dip, he makes our noses touch and are breaths mix together. "Pleasure to meet you."

I could feel my face burning up and I stutter. "D-d-ditto."

He brings me back up and continues to lead this Medieval like dance. Making many circles, several dips, swirls, being brought into his strong arms, and swaying from side to side. Undoing the backwards embrace we continue this dance.

_Good thing this is a dream or else I might've up-chucked my dinner by now. _I let out a small laugh at the thought. I didn't notice it, but Youko moved his head to the left slightly with a raised eyebrow while his ears twitch twice.

We continue this lovely dance, when Youko leads us to a slow stop by a clear crystal lake. My hands slowly fall off of his shoulder and hand, and his hands fall from my hand and waist. I look up at his gold eyes mine showed that I didn't want this to end, but this is just a dream and dreams must come to an end.

Youko Kurama embraces me suddenly; my nose can smell that he smells of fresh roses causing me to form a smile. "Thank-you, for saving me, Gloria." he whispers in my ear.

_When did I save this guy? _Bringing head face out of his chest I rest my chin on it. "Youko, when did I save you?" Curiosity shone in my brown eyes.

He just smirks at me and rubs our noses together. "In due time, little one, in time."

This miracle dreamland begins to shake, violently making me cling to the silver fox. "This can't be an earthquake, can it?" I look around, not really seeing anything.

"Come on, Gloria, time to wake-up." That sounds like Rebecca! "COME ON!! WE'RE GOING TO BE LATE IF YOU DON'T GET UP AND READY!!" The dream world slowly fades away; Youko Kurama already gone, and the roses, lake, sky, and mountains are gone; and my dress is replaced with my fox pajamas.

_+End of Dream Mode+_

I wake-up the violent shaking of my best friend and sister, Neko aka Rebecca. With a giant yawn I sit up in my bed and stretch my arms above my head. "What time is it?" asking through a yawn.

"Gloria, its 6:30! Why aren't you dressed?" Rebecca yells. My only respond is another yawn thinking that's its Saturday. "And no it's not Saturday! So…" Becky rips off the covers making me fall off of my own bed and falling on my butt.

"HEY?!" I glare at the school dressed girl, who is currently at my 'doorway'.

"Sorry, Kitsune. But you know how it is when Grandma wakes you up, so better me then her; right?"

"Yeah, I guess your right, Neko." I hear her laugh slightly and close my door. I sigh heavily. "I suffer from 1-day-ahead syndrome." I get off the fuzzy floor and sluggishly walk towards my oak closet. Gathering out my school uniform I walk inside the counted bathroom to finish the morning rituals. _This is going to be a loooong day. _With that I shut the door behind me.


	3. NEVER Bring a Fox to School

**Okay, here it is!! 'Finally', right?  
Well I hope that this is long enough for you readers!  
Please give a nice review, read, and enjoy!!**

**Ch. 3: NEVER Bring a Fox to School**

After a cold shower - to wake myself up - I blow dry and straighten my long brown hair (with a body towel around my figure), I put on my undergarments, put on my school uniform, and lastly put on matching make-up.

Coming out of my bathroom, I look for the small 4-tailed artic fox. "Hm. I wonder where he could have gone." Looking around my neat room, I see no trace of the unique fox. Shrugging off the feeling that he wasn't the average fox I walk down the stairs and into the kitchen, smelling the pancakes, bacon, and orange juice.

"Sure does smell good in here!!" I enter the kitchen with a happy/tired smile. But as I sat down in my regular seat at the table, Rebecca looks at my shoulder strangely.

"Kitsune, why do you have I an artic fox on your shoulder?" she points at my shoulder with her fork. I turn my head slightly and as bright as the August sun, there stood the tiny 4-tailed fox on my shoulder. I raise one of my eyebrow's curious as to how I didn't feel him there. Shrugging it off, I eat my blueberry-pancakes and occasionally give Kokitsune some bacon.

My grandmother – also, known as Granny- looks at the fox with irritation while washing her plates. "I don't like that fox here, but seeing that the poor thing is injured he may stay. But if I find any fox _surprises_, he'll be out of here faster then Mark is when he calls me an 'old hag'." Both Rebecca and I chuckle at our friend's reaction when he got kicked out of our home, LITERALLY!! Looking at the green lights that belong to the clock on the stove, it read 6:50am. Our school doesn't start until 7:30am. _Better start leaving now. _

After putting our dishes away, we go to get our school bags and begin our way out of the door. "GLORIA!! Aren't you forgetting something?" I hear Granny's voice. Looking back over my shoulder – with curiosity shinning in my eyes – she points to my shoulder. "The fox?"

"Oh yeah! I knew he was still on my shoulder!" Placing Kokitsune on the grassy earth I take off to meet my sister. "Neko, wait up!!" I yell at her while shaking my hand in the air.

"Hurry up!" she shouts back.

* * *

Once I caught up with Rebecca, we began to talk about our dreams last night. "So, Kitsune, what did you dream about?"

Rebecca just got done one of her strange-nightmare dream, now it's my turn to tell her. "Well- UAAA!!" A sudden force causes the both of us to jerk forward.

"How are my two favorite girls doing this fine Friday morning?" The black haired-green eyed goof asks the both us, with his muscular arms draped around our shoulders. "We're doing fine, Mark, thanks for asking. But, I don't think Gloria is all that well this morning." Rebecca answers for me, begins how my response is a bear like yawn.

Both of my soul-siblings look at me, with concern shining in the unique colored eyes. "Hey, Glow?" I look up at my male friend, tired as can be. "How late did you stay up last night?"

"I don't know," I rub my right palm underneath my right eye. "Maybe around midnight." To prove my point I let out another beastly yawn.

"Sheesh!! You weren't kidding when you said you're 'A creature of the night'!"

"Ookami, why aren't you driving your motorcycle this morning?" I plop my tired head on his shoulder.

"What, can't a guy walk and talk with his two favorite girls?" To prove that he 'cares' for us, Mark – other known as Ookami among us -, pinched our cheeks making cooing sounds. Slapping his manly hands away, all three of us speed walk towards our school.

Once inside the courtyard we see the many students, all genders wearing their uniforms. Us girls are wearing a white sailor shirt that has black trimming around the neck area, cuffs, and around the bottom of the shirt with puffy sleeves, we have tan mini skirts that has the same black trimming around the bottom, black stocking that have a white trimmings and form a white bow, and lastly we're wearing black dress shoes.  
The guys are wearing a simple black jumpsuit with 'gold' buttons and trimmings and black shoes.

"I hate uniforms." All of us say at the same time, with a heavy sigh following afterwards. We make fast haste to get to our homerooms – which we all have together.

Adjusting my left shoulder, my bag feels a tad bit heavier than it did this morning. "You okay, Kitsune?" I look at the sky blue eyes of my best friend (and sister) Rebecca. "Yeah, its just my bag… feels like it gained a few pounds…" I hand her my bag for her to feel how heavy it is. Moving up and down she gets her thoughtful look on her face. "Hmmm… maybe to got into the refrigerator last night and had some of that chocolate cake. Or was that someone else…" her piercing eyes met mine. I force a fox like grin. "Wasn't me, for sure."

Lying to her is so damn hard, plus she knows when I'm lying or not… which really sucks. "Hm-hum." She continues to stare at me. "ALRIGHT!! ARLEADY!! I HAD SOME OF THE CHOCOLATE CAKE!! JUST STOP WITH THE EYES IT BURNS!!" I cover my chocolate brown eyes so I won't be able to see her piercing sky ones. Rebecca gives off a toothy cat smile, seeing how she won.

"DID I HEAR CHOCOLATE CAKE?!" Mark's muscular arm wraps around my shoulders and he looks around with wild eyes. "Relax, Ookami. We were talking about last night." Rebecca and I say at the same time, giving off our own unique smiles. "Awww, man I'm hungry!" whined a teenage 'wolf demon'. I shrug off his arm and place my fists on my hips. "Pft! Grow up, Ookami!" I just he him growl and Rebecca chuckle at our childish behavior.

_Man, why is my bag so fricken' heavy?! _I fix my shoulder, yet again. _Note to self: No more chocolate goodies before bed. _Mark and me are now on our way to Earth Science. "So, Glow, ready for the tests today?" Mark asks with this laid-back expression.

"WHAT?! TESTS?!" My eyes are about the size of saucers. "Yeah, the ones for every marking period. Didn't you know that?" he's only answer is a sad groan and some anime tears coming out. "Guess not."

Entering our Earth Science teacher's classroom I await my inescapable doom. Sitting down in my assigned seat I let out a groan, while I placed my forehead on the desk. "I knew that there was something, that I had to do." I bang my head on my desk until I start to feel like I'll pass out, making me stop.

The bell rings, signaling the students should be in their classroom, while I'm rubbing my forehead. "Alright! Ladies and gents! Take out a number two pencil and with you don't have one sign one out, Slackers." Our science teacher enters the room with a bunch of tests, scrap paper, and scantrons. _This test is going to be brutal. _

With sad puppy-dog eyes I take the test once its past out. _I really hope that I don't fail this test. _I thought with a sad sigh. The sound of pencils filling in the thin rectangles, and erases erasing their pervious answers fill my ears.  
There are thirty-two, plus the Open-Ended, questions on this test and I'm only on number twenty. _Okay, who was the one that said the Earth revolves around the sun? … … C) Galileo? _I fill in the rectangle little apprehensive about my answer, but anything is better than nothing.  
Fifteen minutes pasted by, and I'm now on the Open-Ended. 'Give 5 reasons why is it important to learn more about our universe.' I give my best answer to this demand.

After I finished the nerve-racking test I hand it in to the teacher. On time the bell rings telling that first period is OVER, but nine more to go. "Hurry up, Glow!" Mark says while he waits by the door. "I'm coming, Ookami!" I pick up my heavy book bag and walk over to him. "Next stop, art." Both of us say and walk towards the art room.

Seeing Rebecca in the doorway I run up to meet her. "So, Kitsune, how do you think you did on your science test." I let out a stressed groan taking my seat in between Neko and Ookami. "I rather not jinks myself, Neko. And…" Rebecca and Mark's attention turns to me. "THANKS FOR TELLING ME THAT WE HAVE TESTS TODAY!!" I yell at them both. "YOU'RE WELCOME!!" they yell back and because they were both on either side of me, my eardrums begin to hurt. "Owie." I rub my swore ears.

"Students, continue to work on your paintings." That is a simple order, so many go to their stations and work on what they're different paintings.

Picking up my bag I go to my station. I'm working on a portrait with Rebecca, Mark, and me in it. Each of us is doing our own personal things; Mark is training with an ancient katana, Rebecca is studying ancient Japan scripts, and I'm healing an injured ten-year-old boy. All of us dressed in Feudal Era outfits.  
Neko and Ookami won't tell me what they're working on, but I told them. "Crapy friends." I state to no one and continue to work.

Out of the corner of my chocolate colored eyes, my bag begins to move from side to side. "What the…" I place down the paintbrush and palettes. Sitting on my knees I unzip my yellow bag, but when it was half way unzipped a white flash ran out. "What the HELL?!" I fall back on my rear from the shock. "Miss Arishima, you would-" the girls screaming and holding down their skirts cut off the art teacher.

I walk over to Rebecca's side keeping out of the way of the teacher's broom. "Neko, what is that thing?" I point to the white zipping dash. "How should I know, Kitsune? You brought it in here… didn't you?" she looks up at me for an answer, her answer… a shake of the head 'no'. "Well than this can't be good."

The zigzagging blur stops. "K-Ko-Kokitsune?" Kokitsune runs towards me now!! "NO!! KOKITSUNE!! DON'T!!"

_**BAM!! CRASH!!**_"DAMN-IT!!" I was standing in front of the many colorful buckets of paint, but Kokitsune jumped right into me. The force was so great that it sent both of us tumbling into all of them. Allowing the both of us kitsunes to be dressed in different colored paints.

"Kitsune/Glow, are you all right?!" Through the bucket that fell on my head I could hear my friends' concerned voices, as well as the other students' laughter. I move the bucket of navy blue paint above my right eye, being careful not to get any paint in my sad looking eye. "Come on, Glow, take my hand." I see Mark's hand in my face, looking up I see that he has a sympathetic look in his eyes. Not wanting to look further weak in front of the whole class I push his friendly gesture away, get up myself, take the bucket of paint fully off my head, dust off the imaginary dust of my different painted colored skirt, and walking out of the art room back straight with shoulders back and my chocolate eyes closed.

"Mrs. Guan-yin may I…" Our teacher slowly nods her head. "Arigatou." Rebecca bows slightly and runs out of the room, followed by Mark.

I'm in the girl's bathroom, doing my best to wash the paint out of my hair and off my skin before it dries. Kokitsune, I guess who's feeling rather guilty, is sitting on the floor staring at me – my back turned to him. "Gloria?" Turning my head slightly I see Rebecca's concerned face. "Hai? What is it, Neko?" I give her one of my many smiles. With a heavy sigh Rebecca asks what can she do to help me right now. "Ummm… could you wash Kokitsune – I mean if he'll let you of course – while I wash my hair and scrub my skin?" We both look down at Kokitsune he looks at Rebecca with golden eyes, almost like he's analyzing her. Kokitsune stands on his all fours and turns to her nodding his head. Rebecca slowly picks up his messy furry body up and places him in one of the sinks.  
We both resume washing me my hair and skin, and Rebecca Kokitsune's fur.

Two soft, but loud, knocks come from the girl's bathroom door. "I'm coming in now!" Mark's masculine voice can be heard on the other end of the door. He comes in, but is covering his green eyes with one of his hands. "Are there any other girls in here, besides you two?" Both Rebecca and I look around – for me it's rather hard to do – and give him a 'No.' together. He moves his ring finger and middle finger so that we see one of his emerald eyes go to the left and to the right.

Seeing that the coast is clear, Mark crosses him strong arms over his well-defined chest (for an 18-year-old). "Hey, Glow?" "Yeah, Ookami?" I look up from drying my hair, underneath the 'hand blow-dryer'. "If you want to… you could… uhh… barrow my spare jumpsuit."

For some unknown reason I see a pink coloring on his face. "Hm? … Sure, Ookami! That would be wonderful!" I give him a grateful smile. "Hehe, alright I'll be right back you two-" "THREE!!" "WHATEVER!!" Mark walks out of the door leaving the three of us in the pink girl's room.

"OW!! WHAT THE HELL, FUJIWARA!?" Someone yells from the halls. "MIND YOUR OWN FUCKING BUISNESS, HOKKAIDO!!" Mark replies.

He comes back in with a spare black jumpsuit at hand. "Baka, sophomores. OH! Kitsune-chan! Here you are!" Handing me the extra jumpsuit Mark gives us one of his goofy 'I didn't do a damn thing' grin. "Mark, we all know that you punched Hokkaido but I hate him too so I'll let this pass." "As will I, Mark." Rebecca says.

"Alright, lady and gents, I gonna go change." I walk into one of the stalls. I begin to take off my school uniform but something hits me like a ton of bricks. I stand on the toilet (with the lid down) looking at my two friends. "Don't you guys have tests, too?" They both give me their signature animal smiles.

"Kitsune, my grades are all fine so I can afford a few bad grades today." Rebecca states with one of her own cat grin/smiles. "And me… well… its just me, ya' know Kitsune?" Mark gives me a wolfish grin and a wink.

I give both a cheery laugh I jump back down into the stall. After striping down and out of the different colored skin like clothing, I toss them over the door. "In COMING!!" "WAHHH!!" I hear the splattering of the wet painted clothes hit Mark in the face.

"Honestly, Mark, you have to watch were Kitsune throws her stuff." Becky replies to Mark's idiotic actions. I hear Mark sigh, knowing that arguing with her… and when I'm pissed no sense in staying by my side for a few hours… or days.

Once the oversized jump suit is on my body, I realize just how big Mark is. _Hip gangster. _I let out a little chuckle at the thought of Mark doing some gangster moves on the streets.

Coming out of the stall I suddenly feel a small semi wet ball of fluff. "Gomen, Kitsune, but thought it would be better if Kokitsune didn't go under the dryer."

"That's fine, Neko." I hug Kokitsune, slightly drying him off. "Even though he might sink afterwards, he can still sleep with me. Hm!"

Walking out of the girl's room we see… no one at all. "How many times did that bell ring anyway?" Rebecca asks no one unparticular. Mark and I shrug our shoulders. "Well, judging by the clock its… period… 5/6!! OH MAN, WE GOTTA RUN!!" All four of us dash to our 5/6 classes; Mark goes to gym, while Rebecca, Kokitsune, and I head for Mathematics.

The day could've gone better for me. For one I could the student population snickering, giggling, chuckling, and whispering behind my back. Second, the teachers would lecher me about bringing in an animal to class. And lastly… I GOT DETENTION!! For bringing in a fox, wearing the boy's uniform, and destruction of school property.

"This is lame." I state to myself. "First, detention of the year and its because of the three lamest things." With a heavy sigh I head towards the school wanting to tell Becky that I'll be here for at least four more hours.

"What Detention!?" After I showed them the baby blue sheet of paper their jaws dropped, rather shocked that I'd got detention. "But you're not supposed to get detention, you're the good girl!" Mark grabs my shoulders and shakes me back and forth. "BE-ck-y ma-ke him sto-op, PLEASE!!"

"Aren't my friends mature?" Becky asks herself. She grabs Mark's upper arm and drags him away saying something like he's so immature or irresponsible, either way he's both.

I enter the empty school building with a heavy sigh and with Kokitsune by my side. "Well, there's a first time for everything." Going towards the room for people like Mark, I see Mrs. Guan-yin. "Miss Arishima, what are you doing down here?" With a confused look I state that I'm going to the detention room.

"Oh, no, no, no. Your punishment is not down here to be spent with those students, but to clean the art room." Right now my face is shocked. Mrs. Guan-yin lets out what I think is a giggle. "Come, I'll show you the damage down."

"Oh, man! This will take HOURS to CLEAN!!" I whine. The art teacher places her hand on my shoulder. "Good luck, Miss Arishima." With she left to go home, like I wish I could do right now. But sadly I cannot do that until my four hours of torture have ended.

Walking around the large art room with the cleaning supplies at hand, I think of where to start. Kokitsune has a big fluffily yellow sponge in him mouth. "Kokitsune, where do you think we should start?" He prances off towards where the very colorful, and messy, wall is. "So start off big and work our way down?" Kokitsune gives a nod and a fox grin, with the sponge still in his mouth. "Alright, lets get to it to do it." I roll up Mark's spare black uniform sleeves and tie the baggy pants with some rope that I found in here.

Standing a small ladder I scrap and sponge the dried paint off. Kokitsune is helping with the lower area, by scratching off the paint with his claws. "Hey, be careful Kokitsune! Don't over do it, okay." He continues with his job, ignoring my voice. "Alright, but when we get back home I'm going to check those wounds of yours." Kokitsune gives me some kind of snort.

The wall of colorful paint is back to its white wall of glory; I just wasted a two hours figuring that I could have just repainted the wall white. The other stuff was easy to clean… but portrait is another story. "Those damn bastards and bitches." I growl out. My once, almost, finished painting is now has black paint on it. "Grrr… if people didn't think of as the kind-hearted- UHH I just hate them!!" I ruffle my long hair in irritation. "WAIT THIS CAN STILL WORK!!" I grasp the sides of the 'ruined' painting. "All I have to do is paint this whole thing black and make it appear to be night! I still remember what and how they were doing their activities! This is going to be great!!" I let out a gasp. "I can even use silver glitter for the stars and the Moon's glow!" I squeal at my newfound idea. "And because I finished with the cleaning I can get started-"

Feeling a clawed paw, claw my leg I look down at Kokitsune. He nods his head towards the circular wall clock. "OH SHEEP!! THE BUS!!" Picking up Kokitsune by the scruff of his snow colored neck, I take him under my left arm and find the bus that is going down my street.

Luckily I found the giant yellow bus just in time. But, the ride was all fuzzy, for I fell asleep. But the licking sensation from something brought me out of my sleeping form. Looking around I see that I'm the only one left on the bus, and that Kokitsune licked me to make me wake-up.  
Walking off the yellow bus, that has our school's name on both sides, I thank Mr. Tony.

"Jeez, every time I walk down this thing it gives me the creeps." I rub my arms, to calm the goose bumps that rose. This driveway – at night – gives me the creeps. The trees look like they're laughing at whatever walks through here, their branches feel like they're reaching down to you and wanting to bring you in the forest to do God knows what, and no light shines through the branches and leaves at the top (making it feel all the more demonic creepy).  
Feeling the adrenalin kick in I break out into a run, Kokitsune running by my side.

Slamming the door open and close I pant out of breath, my chocolate as big as saucers. Hearing the door's slamming Rebecca comes and sees that it's only me. "GLORIA'S HERE!!" She shouts to the ceiling.

The sound of running feet comes from my room. In a flash my face is in (as much as I hate to say it) my Grandmother's cleavage. "OH, my sweet, sweet, sweet, little Kitsune!!" Grandma moves from side to side bringing me along for the ride. "Are you okay?! Did those delinquents harm you?! Did you get any tattoos, body piercing, OH please tell me you didn't get lose your virginity?!" I move my arms around in a frantic motion. Thankfully, Becky is here to save me. "Grandma, don't worry. Kitsune, most likely had to clean the art room she and Kokitsune messed up."  
_Thank God, Rebecca was born! And bless her kind and knowing soul! _

"Is that true, Gloria?" I nod my head, still in my Grandmother's chest. "OH!! Well than," she takes me out and I gasp in the fresh clean air. "That changes everything! Your dinner is in the fridge and Kokitsune's is in there, too." She lets out a yawn. "Now, if you two young ladies will excuse me I'm going to go to bed. Keep it down."

She retires for the night, while me, Becky, and Kokitsune are still wide-awake. _Must be an old person thing. _

I reheated Kokitsune's and my dinner, which is absolutely delicious!! "So, Kitsune, how was your 'detention'?" I guess she couldn't help but give me one of those sarcastic smiles of hers. I sigh in irritation. "Other than what? Cleaning the whole art room, thinking that I had to spend four hours with demented people, or finding that my painting is ruined?" Rebecca gasps when she hears the painting that I've worked so hard on is now ruined.

"What-How-Why-When…"

"In order? My painting is ruined, someone ruined with black paint, don't know why, sometime after I left." She looks down, thinking why someone would do such a cruel deed. "But, don't worry, Neko! I know how to fix!" I give her one of my kitsune grins; she looks back up and gives me one of her neko smiles.

I give a beastly yawn and stretch my arms above my head, once I'm in my 'pimped out' room. "Man! Those tests today were brutal!" Collapsing on my bed I sigh in contentment. "All I want to do right now is sleep, and not wake-up." I close my eyes with a smile on my face, ready for the Sand Man to take me away. But as some cruel twist of fate, Kokitsune beings to lick my face, again. "Hmm? Kokitsune, what is it?" My eyes are half way open, tired with sleep. The silver-four-tailed fox paws Mark's school uniform. I smile gently seeing the look in his golden eyes. "What? You don't like the smell of Mark on me?" My smile widens when Kokitsune buffs his furry-bandaged chest. _WAIT!! Bandages?! _"Gomen, Kokitsune! Come here, let me check your wounds." I pick Kokitsune up and hold him as if he were a baby.

Grabbing nearby succors and carefully cut the bandages, so I could see if Kokitsune's wound worsened through the day's events. "N-Nani?"

_Kokitsune's wounds are completely healed! But how can this be? _I softly run my fingers across Kokitsune's belly, studying if his wounds are truly gone… and they are. "That's odd." I look over his small body, than my chocolate eyes land on his four tails. "Must be something to do with those four tails ours. Hm. Oh, well. I'm going to go take a shower."

I place Kokitsune on my bed and walk towards my dresser. Picking up my red paw print pajamas, white socks, and underwear; the sleeves and legs (of the pajamas) are both long, sleeping up here by you can get chilly.

The hot water relaxes very muscle and joint in my body. Unlike my room my bathroom is really bright, perfect wake-up call. Many different scented shampoos, conditioners, soaps, and candles in here.

The walls have yellow painting and white tiles, the floor is matching but bigger tiles, the cabins has white wood but glass doors and silver handles, the counters are some kind of white smooth stone, a sheer laced white curtain covers the one window, golden handles holding white fluffily towels, a clean mirror is above the sink, and the shower/bathtub is clean white and the curtain that shields me from other's view is white as well but has trimmings of foxes running around and roses on it. All and all the two rooms are very different!

Turning off the nice water, I walk out and put a towel around my body and dripping wet dark chocolate hair. Wiping some of the steam on the mirror I see that my face gained a red like color to the cheeks, due to the heat of the water. While putting on my pajamas, I hear scratching at the wooden door.

"In a minute, Kokitsune." I brush my hair free of any tangles that might've been created, while during my shower.

Opening the door to the dark bedroom, Kokitsune stumbles at my feet. "Awww, Kokitsune!" I pick up his small baby-like-body and snuggle with. "You are just SO KAWAII!!" I help but laugh when I hear him purring.

Going underneath the warmth of the covers and my head hits the softness of my dark pillow I fall asleep instantly.

_Why is my shower running? Ugh, must be Becky or something. _I tiredly get out of my bed and sluggishly walk towards the ruined dark wood door. Opening the door I'm slightly blinded from the brightness of it all. "Neko, why are you taking a shower in my room?" Becky's responds is an oddly sounding 'Uhhh…' almost like someone is trying to sound too girly. "Whatever. I'm to tired, just remember to put everything back in their proper place." My hand is on the golden doorknob when I hear Becky's odd sounding voice. _Maybe she's going through puberty again. _

"Ummm… K-Kitsune, where's the rose scented shampoo and conditioner?" I yawn and stand on the closed white toilet and open one of the cabinets pulling out, what looks like, the rose scented stuff. "Here you are, Becky." She lets out a 'Thank-you' and grumble something back, that even I can't understand.

To lazy to under the covers, I just flop down on the bed. _Please!! Just let me sleep, damn-it!! If I sleep soundly throughout the rest of the night I'll-I'll…I'll GO OUT ON A DATE… WITH A GUY!! KOKITSUNE EVEN!! JUST PLEASE LET ME SLEEP!! _

Slowly after that promise that only the Sand Man and one with much more power than anyone I know poses, I fall asleep into my dream wonderland… … wanting to meet the kitsune Youko again.

**Note:  
Kokitsune means small fox demon. (I got that from the Internet.)**


	4. A Date with Kokitsune

**ALRIGHT!! THIS ONE WAS THE SHORTEST UPDATE YET!!  
Now I must go work on my other stories.  
Read, enjoy, and review. Please!**

**Ch. 4: A Date with Kokitsune**

I brush my long dark chocolate hair humming a random tune, while rethinking my dream with Youko. I was so happy, and yet it kind of freaked me out. Normally when I have a dream with someone in it, I don't see him or her again. BUT WHO CARES?! Sure, Youko can be pervy but he can also be a complete gentleman.  
We were in the garden again wearing the same thing as before, although I could've done without the crown. Both us talked throughout the dream, but I did most of the talking and Youko did most of the listening. I told him about the Human World (apparently there are three worlds), myself, Granny, Rebecca, and Mark and how I met them.

"Kokitsune, is it odd to love a dream?" I look at the small four tailed fox, that's curled up in a ball on the white oval rug. He looks up at me and tilts his head. With a sigh I resume taking care of my hair. "Its odd. I know it is, but Youko is such a… I can't say. But in the dreams he seems he wants to get to know me better, almost like he were real." I state quietly, frowning in confusion.

Placing by brush back in one of the white draws, smooth out my clothes for the day, and walk towards my 'door'. My 'shadow' following my very move. As I reach down for the handle it opens by itself, but seeing my sister on the other end I give her a smile. "What's up?"

"Apparently you." she states with a smile of her own.

"And when I'll step on the ground where you're standing, then I'll be down." We both laugh at the whole 'What's up?' conversation, rethinking the time we went to the Renaissance Fair. "Kitsune, breakfast is ready and come down here fast before Ookami eats it all."

With that I jump down and run towards the kitchen; seeing Mark stuff his face with sausage, left over bacon, eggs, and drinking it down with orange juice.

"Ohayo! Glow! Are you hungry?" he gives me one of those wolfish grins of his and right now I despise it. Feeling someone place their hand on my right shoulder I look over it, and see Becky with a plate just for me.

"Arigatou, Neko." I take the plate and sit across from Mark guarding my plate from his bottomless pit, also known as the male stomach. Rebecca sits by me as well, guarding her plate as well, and Grandma sits at the head of the table. Kokitsune is on his (what I guess to be) his favorite place… my shoulder.  
Mark decided enough is enough and begun to eat like a gentleman.

We all discussed about what we dreamed about, if we did at all, and what detention was like for me. _Hmmm, Kokitsune will have to go back to his friends and family soon now. Maybe I should celebrate that his wounds have healed in such a short time. _I feed Kokitsune some of the sausage that he eats greedily. I rub my nose into the side of his snow-white furry face, I feel him tense a bit but he relaxes soon, and afterward leans inwards.

"GAH!! WILL YOU TWO STOP THAT, BEFORE I BURF UP MY BREAKFAST!!" I let out a giggle, when Kokitsune seems to sick out his tongue at Mark. I stop the 'loving act' and resume eating my breakfast. Rebecca occasionally feeds Kokitsune, too, making him very happy. All the while Grandma is sitting there reading one of her books, finished with her breakfast.  
As odd as it is, I don't find Kokitsune 'weird' just differently unique.

I go about my day in my dark room staring up at the ceiling, thinking how I could take Kokitsune out on the 'date'. _ARUGH!! Why am I making a big deal about this anyway?! He most likely doesn't even know what a date is anyway!! But… he is a fox; they do out wit a lot of the 'hound dogs'. _With a heavy sigh I push myself off of my back and get a determined look on my face. "Alright! Here goes, something!!"

I'm now in the kitchen cooking and baking up all different kinds of goodies. Almost all of this stuff is something both of us can eat, I don't know much about cooking/baking but I'm giving it my all refusing any help (kindly). Course humans being nosey as we are, my friends and family ask what I'm doing I just reply with a simple 'Cooking and baking' retort. And when Kokitsune came in I shooed him right back out… though he came right back. _Damn fox… _

"ALRIGHT!! I'M FINISHED!!" My loved ones come rushing into the kitchen. "WAHHHHH!!" Their jaws literally drop when they seeing all the different foods I've made. "So does any of this look editable?" Rebecca blinks several times, before nodding her head slowly. "It _looks_ editable, but if it is… I don't know. You hardly ever cook so…" she briefly looks up at me, but then resumes looking at all the foods. "If you followed the cook book you, and whomever you're eating with, should be fine."

"Well there's only one way to find out if this stuff is good enough to eat!" Mark rolls up his sleeves, and is about to touch the vanilla cake when… I slap his hand away with a wooden spoon. "This isn't for you, Mark!" He backs away slowly while rubbing his swore hand. Rebecca and Grandma are both giggle behind the hands'.

I place the wooden spoon on my shoulder I turn towards Kokitsune, with my other hand placed on my hip. "So, Kokitsune…" Kokitsune looks up at me, with curiosity shining in his golden eyes. "Do you have anything planed today?" I smile at him.  
Kokitsune's wags his four snow-white tails, with his very own smile on his face. Jumping in my arms he rubs against me and begins to purr.

* * *

"Okay, you have everything, Gloria?" Grandma checks over everything again. "For the tenth time, YES!!" All three of us teenagers shout at her. The elderly woman sighs greatly, and looks at Kokitsune with a glare. "AND YOU!!" she wags her finger in front of his face. "You better bring her back before nightfall!" Kokitsune lets a yawn that gives off a squeaky noise with it. Causing Granny to get an anger pressure point. "Just make sure you get here before nightfall, I know how much you (and all of you) hate coming up that driveway when it's dark."

"Don't worry me and Kokitsune, will be fine. And if anything goes wrong," Kokitsune jumps onto my shoulder. "Kokitsune will help me!" Mark just rolls his eyes; Rebecca and Grandma can't help but give a little laugh. "Well, we're off!" I kick the stand of my bike backward and ride off towards the destination where our 'date' is.

With the wind and the smell of cherry blossoms in the air it almost seems that… _What the hell? I can't think that! He may be to smart for his own good; in the what, three days that I've known him? He's not even human! He's a fox!! _I've been doing a lot of sighing lately. Kokitsune looks up at me and behind me, eyeing the scented bag of goodies. "Not until we get to where we're going, Kokitsune." He pushes his white fluffy ears back against his head, though I ignore him and his cute act.  
I've read about that if you scowled a puppy, they'll pull 'I did nothing' trick. I know that Kokitsune means small fox demon, but… he's a grown fox… just small enough to be on your shoulder… _or… in your book bag. _

We reach my favorite park, Micke Grove Regional Park! Seeing that nature is now around, Kokitsune jumps out of the wicker bike basket and runs around enjoying the feeling of grass between his paws. "KOKITSUNE!! WAIT!! HUMANS DON'T NORMALLY SEE FOXES AROUND THIS CITY!!" I state more to myself than the open air, _MUCH LESS ONE'S WITH __FOUR TAILS__!!_ Kokitsune doesn't listen to me he just continues to run around the open grassy field.

Having the gut feeling that he'll come back I lock up my bike and bring the basket and the blanket over towards a cherry blossom tree that's by the lake. Placing the tan basket underneath the sakura tree. After spreading out the blanket, I set the foods about - leaving the cake inside so on one (Kokitsune) could get it. "There all perfect!" I wipe some imaginary sweat off my brow. "I'm so proud of myself today!" I place my fists on my hips and laugh, until I feel small-clawed paws on my back and working up my shoulder.

"Kokitsune?" Turning my head to the right I'm met with a soft lick on my nose, causing me to blush, and a soft head rubbing against my cheek while it's purring. I give this lovable-unique fox a soft smile. "I'm glad you like this, Kokitsune."

After petting him for a while, I set down on the blanket. "Take your pick, Kokitsune." Almost instantly he goes for the fish sticks. "So you're a fishy type of fox. I'll keep that in mind if we meet again!" Kokitsune just looks at me with his head tilted, and with a fish stick hanging out of his mouth. "Come on, Kokitsune, its not like I can keep you as a pet. You're a wild animal. I'm positive that you have loved ones waiting and worrying about you, and if you staying with me makes them worry more I don't want to be apart of it… gomen." For some odd reason, my eyes begin to sting and burn with tears. But, I refuse to let them fall. Whether Kokitsune be human, a fox, half demon, or demon I refuse to let my tears fall in front of someone. _I haven't cried since my parents' death. There's no way in HELL THAT I'M STARTING NOW!!_

+Youko/Kokitsune's POV+

The four-tailed fox could sense that the young human girl – also known as Gloria, Kitsune, and Glow – is upset. But why? Because he'll have to leave? No one has ever cried for him to stay… minus a few whores, but that's different.

Wanting the atmosphere to be lively and friendly again, Kokitsune jumped into the girl's lap and rubbed his furry snow colored head into her stomach and went back to eating _his _'fish sticks'. _These are much better than the fish back in Makai. _He hears the girl's laughter, causing him to look up and give a fox-ish grin. "Now what happens if I want one?" Gloria asks with a smile. Kokitsune steps over his fish sticks and growls at her, Gloria puts up her happens like she's been caught by the Spirit Detectives. "Alright, alright, I get it. This is revenge for me not sharing my piece of chocolate cake with you. Is that it?" Kokitsune's respond it that is a 'deeper' growl. She laughs again and eats something that he doesn't know of.

After most of the food (mostly the fish sticks) Gloria puts them away. "Ready to play?" She grins at Kokitsune, with _his_ kitsune grin.  
For the rest of the day the two kitsunes played all different games. Tag, hide-n-seek, climbed some of the trees, saw who could eat their ice cream faster (not a very good idea though), and now they're skipping stones.

"You see, Kokitsune, its all in the wrist." With that Gloria snaps her wrist and the smooth rock skips five times before it sinks into the crystal water. "HA! Five times a new personal best!" she places her fists on her hips and laughs. "Lets see if you can beat that, Kokitsune!" Kokitsune looks around the line where the water and earth meets, searching for the perfect stone. He could feel the girl's smile widening.

Once his stone is found Kokitsune picks it up in his mouth, drops it on the, but grabs it with one of his tails. Snapping his tail towards the lake the stone skips, _ten times_! "Well, I'll be damned. Would cha' look at that." Kitsune's smile diminishes and she runs her hand through her long chocolate colored hair. "Maybe its in the tail, and not the wrist. Hm?" Shaking the feeling off she heads back over towards their area, underneath the sakura tree and took out something that smells marvelous.

Rushing over to see what the scent is, Kokitsune sees that it's a circular white… cake? He's only had one of these and that was when it was 'birthday' and his partner (Kuronue) made him one. Though it wasn't every good, it's the thought that counts. "Want some cake, Kokitsune?"  
How odd is this human? She made a cake for them and yet it's not their birthdays. But so, she made it for him and not that Ookami guy.

Kokitsune let out a sound that a cat kind of makes and jumped on the human girl's lap. "Unlike the chocolate one, this one I'm pretty sure you can eat without getting sick." She cuts two pieces, one for her and the other for Kokitsune.

Unlike the first time he saw cake in Ningenkai, they didn't fight over this one. _Good thing two, this is delicious. _Kokitsune eats his piece of vanilla cake full of greed.

The girl gave a yawn, after putting what was left of the cake away and fell backwards on her back. She stretched her arms above her head – making her red ruffled shirt up and exposing her pale tummy – and stretched her long legs – making them seem longer due to the Capri's she's wearing. "Best. Date. Ever." She mumbles. "Though I can't really say that, seeing how's this is the only date I've been on." she looks towards Kokitsune. "Don't you feel special?" she asks with a smile.

Kokitsune jumped onto her still exposed belly, causing the girl to jump up slightly, and curled into a white fur ball. The girl smiles down at the four tailed fox she saved just three days ago and closed her chocolate eyes waiting for a little nap to come, her hand having a mind of it's own and petting the unique fox.

After about ten minutes, Kokitsune felt the Gloria's stomach rise and fall softly and evenly. And because no one was around now he was free to talk. "Kuronue, you can show yourself you know?"

Up in the sakura tree, a big dark shadow appears. So instead of the softness of the cherry blossom's silhouettes on Kokitsune and Gloria, a huge bat like shadow falls over them. A deep, amusing, chuckle fills the air. "Awww, but its so kawaii watching you and this _human girl's_ date." Kuronue let another amusement chuckle. Kokitsune jumps off Gloria's belly and begins to glow silver and mist forms around him, making Kuronue stop his chuckling.

Kokitsune became to take the form of a human, a seven-foot tall. But he's not a human; soon after of looking like a human fluffily silver fox ears appear and so does a long-fluffily-lean tail takes it's place on the tailbone. Youko Kurama, King of Thieves of Makai, stood tall and proud with his muscular arms crossed over his chest, a 'friendly' glare on his face looking at the lavender eyes of his best friend, and standing next to and above the human girl that HELPED him. "What is it that you want, Kuronue?" he says in his deep masculine voice. The over grown bat sighs deeply and leans back on the scented tree. "What can't a bat demon thief be worried about his best fox friend?"

"Not without wanting something in return." Youko states, sitting high up on the other side of the tree much like his life long friend Kuronue. Kuronue lets out another sigh. "You know me to well my friend." Both friends let out smirk. "Anyway, the troops are getting restless trying to find you. Yomi is of no help to me, for trying to find you. But…"

"But…?" Youko is anxious to hear what this bat has to say. "But he was good for something." Youko raises an eyebrow at this. Kuronue never liked Yomi; so saying that he's good for something is a _big _step for Kuronue. "Yomi brought a blind old man to the hideout. Yomi said that 'this guy can find anyone we want to find'. Half of me wanted to but the other half did not. Heh. Call it being a thief, but…" Kuronue shakes his head riding himself of those thoughts, but the shaking of his head made his witches hat fall off of him and right on to Gloria's face.

"Mmm?" The two-demon thieves guess is that she woke. "My hat." She grips the dark purple witches hat off her, and uses it as a pillow. By now Kuronue is growling at the human girl, for that _his hat_ is now _hers_. Youko is chuckling slightly at how the human kitsune thinks that the hat is hers. _Kuronue will stop at nothing to get that back. _

"K-Ko-kitsune…" Stopping his chuckle, Youko looks down at the rare human. "I-I'll… miss… you." Her sleeping face gains a sad expression on it, making Youko's golden eyes turn to sadness but only for a second.

"Seems that she knows what is going to happen." States Kuronue, Youko nods in responds. "I'll leave tonight make sure that there's a portal, or else I'll be staying here much, much, longer."

"And do you know how that will effect your reputation?" Youko Kurama nods to his friend's question.

Gloria groans in her sleep, her chocolate colored eyes blinking a few times before they are fully open. With a big yawn she looks around for what Youko believes to be himself… Kokitsune.

+Gloria's POV+

I've just woken up from an odd dream; sadly that one didn't have Youko. Looking around for Kokitsune I don't see him anywhere. _Maybe he had to use the little fox's room. _I place my hands behind me, so that I could lean back to stretch my tired limbs, but my hands touch a rough material. Looking back I see a worn out hat. "What the heck?" I pick it up and look inside of it, to see if they put their name in it… no such luck. "This hat sure is… unique. Never saw something like this." I inspect the hat all around. "But… it wasn't here before." I stand and look around the area to see if Mark and/or Rebecca are playing a prank on me. No such luck if that either.

I plop back down on the picnic blanket. Wanting to see if this fits my head, I place it on. "Wow, this person has a really big head." The hat didn't fit my head; it went right down around my neck. "If I just pop the rest of this thing out," I try to make my head go through the top. "I could make it into some kind of belt-skirt-thing." But a softness rubbing against my leg made stop and look down.

Seeing Kokitsune, I pick him up like he was a baby. "What do you think of this hat?" I take the rough purple hat off of my head and show Kokitsune. He rips it out of my hand and runs towards the end of the blanket. Dropping the hat he walks over it, growling. I sigh thinking that it's the fish sticks all over again.

Looking up at the sky I see that it's painted with marvelous colors, due to the setting sun. _WAIT!! SETTING SUN?! _"OH NO!! KOKITSUNE IF WE DON'T LEAVE NOW WE WON'T MAKE IT BEFORE THE CURFEW!!" I frantically fold up the blanket, place that inside the basket, along with the foods we didn't eat and didn't finish. "Come on!!" I pick him up and place the hat on my head, running towards the parking lot like a bunch of thieves are at my heels.

Partially slamming the basket down in front, I unlock my bike, kick the stand back and take off Kokitsune hanging on for dear life on my shoulder. _So glad I wore pants. _

* * *

We made it to my driveway, before dark. That's good because now, it doesn't look as creepy! The sunlight can get through the leaves and branches, but only a little, making it seem that God's light is shining through. The trees are still smiling but much more friendly, their long branches still reaching out and untrusting.  
Walking through the driveway in the middle I take my time. Listen to the sounds of nature, the smells of nature, and… nature. Living past this is wonderful for a growing family who likes their privacy.  
Once I see the log cabin that I grew up in after my parents' death, I walk faster.

After placing my bike against the wooden house, I walk inside with the basket and Kokitsune. Walking inside I see everyone doing their normal activities; Mark is watching TV, Grandma is sewing something, and Rebecca is reading something. "So how was your 'date' with Kokitsune, Kitsune?" I jump surprise hearing Rebecca's voice. _She didn't even see me come in! _Shaking the oddness of it I give her very happy smile.

"Great! Kokitsune and I did many things, mostly ate though! Now our belly's are full." After putting the basket on one of the kitchen counters, I come out rubbing my full tummy. Mark gets up his lying position on the couch and walks into the kitchen.

"What the hell happened!?" All of us go back into the kitchen, rushing. Seeing that Mark has his hand inside the wicker basket, we all get confused looks on our faces. Mark looks directly at me… scary. "I wanted to eat some of this, onna!" He brings out his hand; all four set of eyes see some inedible 'goop'.

Granny, points at the goop with her needle. "What?! Is that!" Suddenly a light bulb goes off in my head. "Ummm…" Aged Hazel, sky blue, and emerald green eyes set upon me. "You see, I-we were in such a rush to get home that, I kind of smashed everything into the bag. Gomen." I rub the back of my neck, laughing slightly. Mark groans seeing that he wouldn't get to try the stuff I cooked early this morning.

+Goodnight People (Youko's POV)+

Gloria lies sleeping underneath her warm covers, with a smile on her lips. Whenever Youko entered her dreams she smiles, and he likes that much more than any other expression.

Speaking of the silver Youko, he lies next to her in his humanoid form. His left hand lifting his head, his right arm across her stomach, and his long muscular yet lean legs hang off the bed slightly. Watching the healing woman sleeping, while they shared a conversation. Unfortunately, this is the last time they'll spend their nights together in her dreams. Kuronue is outside of the log cabin, waiting for Youko to open the window's up in the attic.

Youko didn't want to leave without saying good-bye to Gloria.

+Dream Mode+

Youko and Gloria lie down in the silver rose field, where they always spent their nights together. Gloria's head is on top of his muscular chest – listening to his demonic heart – her arms wrapped around him, staring up at the universal sky. One of Youko's arms is wrapped around her, too, while the other one is petting her dark chocolate hair, unlike her eyes Youko's are closed wondering how he'll tell this helpful human, that he'll leave tonight and they'll never see one another again.

The thought made him tense briefly Gloria took notice his body's reaction to something. Looking up at the _real_ kitsune, curiosity shines in her chocolate eyes. "Youko, what's wrong?" Youko looks down at her confused face, another cute look for her. "Nothing, little one."

Now her expression is irritation. "Yeah right." she sighs and then continues her hug became tighter. "Youko, you do know that you can tell me anything right?" Youko laughs, so loud and hard that it feels like an earthquake again making Gloria grip on his white shirt.

The silver kitsune planets his palm on his forehead after the laughter. "Gloria, I've only known you for, what four days/nights now?" he sits up, taking along for the ride. He gazes down at her with his golden eyes. "How can you expect me to trust you so quickly?" The teenage girl's eyes gain sadness within their depths.

Gloria places her crowned head on his chest. "Well… you said that the first time we met… that… I saved you, right?" She looks up at him. "Isn't that enough for you?"

_Damn she has a point there. It's now or never, too. Knowing Kuronue he's properly getting restless. _With a heavy sigh Youko Kurama takes Gloria's hands and stands, again taking her along.

"Gloria…" Looking up in his golden orbs, she sees that this will be very serious. Seeing that Youko has her attention he just says it. "This will be the last time we'll see each other."

"N-Na-Nani?" Gloria's face is utter shock ness. But Youko keeps his cool and calm expression. "Hai."

Gloria pushes herself away from Youko Kurama, refusing to show him the tears outlining her eyes and refusing to let fall. "Baka." Youko attention is now on her back. "Baka, baka, baka!" Youko doesn't know if she's insulting him… or herself.

"I'm such baka." Yes, insulting herself. She continues to call herself awful names, and not wanting to hear Gloria degrade herself any longer Youko stealthy walks up behind her and strongly wraps his arms around her form. "Shut-up, already. You're not a baka, nor will you ever be."

She keeps quite, but suddenly is filled with hatred. Trying pry his arms open she begins to insult him, for being the way that he is – even though there's nothing wrong with him in her eyes.

Youko has had enough of this human's attempts to escape his steel grasp and insulting him; he turns her around, grabbing both of the wrists, overlapping one of his legs with hers, leans down, and places his lips over hers. The action was in one swift movement shocking the female human.

Pulling his smooth lips away from hers he sees that her eyes are wide-open, shock and confusion filled both of them equally. Youko let out an amused chuckle at her expression. But soon stopped remembering what he had said earlier.

Youko Kurama, Thieving King of Makai, embraced Gloria Arishima, the teenage human girl. Youko swallows his pride this one moment and forgets who and what he is, and says something that he'll never say again. "Gomen nasai, Gloria. But I really do have to leave. Though…" his embrace tightness around her waist. "I don't want to, but I must."

Gloria presses her head further in his chest, wanting to remember him in her mind's eye. Even though it's a dream it feels so real to her. "So you could keep up your reputation?" Youko stiffens only for a second though, most likely she already read about him in that red book of hers. "When I first saw you… and heard your name… it sounds and you look so familiar to me. Darn memory black out!" She would have hit her head like she normally does, but really couldn't because Youko's arms were around pinning them down and didn't want to ruin the moment.

Youko's furry silver ears twitch making him look behind him. Sensing the irritated sigh escape his throat, Gloria knew where this was going… their good-bye.

Youko slowly beings to fade, as well as the silver rose-universal sky-mountainous region-crystal lake-wonderful dream that was created about four nights ago.

Brown eyes gain salty tears but they don't fall, no matter how great the burning and sting. Youko leans down and kisses her pale forehead. "Farewell, lit-Gloria." Youko started to call her by her nickname that he of for her, but thought it would be better to use her real name. "Good-bye, Youko." Her voice is shaken now, doing her best to hide her sadness.

The dream, and Youko, vanishes leaving the girl in the darkness of nothingness.

+End of Dream Mode (Gloria's POV)+

"Youko!?" I spring up after the fright of being in the dark dream. Looking around I nothing out of ordinary… but… Kokitsune … is gone. "Kokitsune?" I call out, but I receive no answer. I flop back down on my bed, avoiding the head broad. I put my left arm over my brown eyes. "That good-bye… … sure was sad." I state to no one. I let out a sad laugh. "Man, I can't believe that it felt so real." Taking my arm off of my eyes, I trace my lips. "His lips sure were warm and soft… almost like rose petals."

My eyelids gain a heaviness to them, making me open and close them three times before I fall back asleep knowing that Youko won't be there this time…


	5. No Longer in Ningenkai

**Alright!! Finally updating 'No Longer in the Human World'!!  
This chapter I would like to dedicate to one of my best friends, DarkXLightxmagique!! To all who read her amazing stories she is currently away. So she won't update her stories until she gets back from England/France.  
****So girl, I hope that you'll enjoy this chapter when you're back home!!  
As well as, you other readers.  
Will all give a nice review and enjoy? **

**Ch. 5: No Longer in Ningenkai**

Three high school students walk down a dirt driveway. Two of them are young women the other is a young man. After a long test day at their school, all they want to do is just eat and watch cartoons. But the shortest of them all, Rebecca (or Becky/Neko), seems to be distracted with something.  
Her icy blue eyes are darting into the woods that surround them all; she looks at the woods with a slight glare. The other two don't seem to sense what she senses. Something evil, something demonic…

"Man, this bits!!" I shout, ruffling my hands in my long brown hair. My friends' eyes are on me. "Who could be such a Fricken' as-mufmuwphmmm!!" Mark's hand went over my mouth.

"Glow, we get! Someone ripped two pages out of your Demon book. You don't have to cuss them out, ya' know?" I rip away from his hand and look back at them. "I KNOW!! IT JUST PISSES ME OFF, IS ALL!!" Mark lets out a deep sigh, and Becky stares into the woods.

"Do you guys feel that?" Her voice sounds… well… creepy. Mark looks at me, and I look at him. We both shake our heads and look back at our Neko. "Well, I do. And it feels bad."

She walks into the woods. Mark shrugs his broad shoulders and follows after her, knowing she'll still go even if we didn't.

"Wait!! Aren't we supposed to walk _away_from something like that!?" Rebecca and Mark both ignore me, praying slightly. I give them both a sigh. "My friends will be the death of me…" I follow after them, reluctantly.

We walk deep into our wooded area. Rebecca leading the way, since she knows where this 'demonic aura' is at anyway. After about an hour and a half, all of us spot a… portal!!  
It swirls in the colors of purple, white, blue, and pink and this 'portal' thing is swirling counterclockwise.

Mark walks up to the unknown vortex, and pokes it. His finger seems to be sucking inward, with a 'swoooooosh'-ing sound. "I've read about these things in one of my demon books." He says. "Depending on which way the portal is spinning (if its spinning at all), it'll take us to a different world." Rebecca and I look at one another, rather stunned that Mark remembered something that he read.

Stepping back he looks at the swirling portal. "But I never found out which swirl connects with which world." Rebecca walks up to the portal and walks around the portal, while rubbing her chin.

"Hmmm…?"

I walk up to the swirling portal and stick my left leg in. Looking on the other side I don't see it, so I bring my leg out before I lose it for good.

I step back so Rebecca can investigate the portal further. Mark and I walk up behind her.

"Neko, do you see anything?" Mark asks.

"Other than a counterclockwise spinning portal, no."  
_Smart-ass… _I look at her with a dull look.

"Oh, well than. Allowing me to help you, Neko." Mark states, rather politely.

_That's odd, coming from Mark. _I look at him suspiciously, with a raised eyebrow.

I stand on Rebecca's right and Mark stands behind her. "Mark are you going to- whaaa!!"

Mark pushed REBECCA INSIDE THE PORTAL!! In doing so, making Rebecca grabs my wrist and making me grab Mark!! All three of us left our school bags behind us, when we entered.

"This isn't good!!" I state. We're all twisting and twirling, I hear voices but they're going to fast for me to hear, images are zipping past us but they too are going to fast for anyone to see.  
There's a light up ahead and the speed picks up.

"Uahhhh!! Oof!" I land on the soft, but uncomfortable, ground, and then something very heavy lands on me. "What the heck?"

"Oh! Gomen, Glow, Neko!" Mark jumped off of us and helps both of us up. Rebecca rubs her back with a pained expression. "You two are heavy!" Mark gains a goofy grin and rubs the back of his neck I smile innocently.

"Well, Neko, muscle weighs more than fat." Mark states with a grin on his face. "Are you saying that I'm fat?!" I cross my arms chest and glare at him. Mark's green eyes widen, he realizes what he'd just said. "N-no, Gloria!! I didn't mean it like that!" His arms are frantically shaking in front of his face. "What, I meant to say is that you're… ummm-"

Rebecca and I hold up our hands. "Why, don't you stop before you say something you'll regret."

Looking around, I see that it looks like my woods. "We can't be that far from our home, Beck." She nods in agreement and Mark looks around for our bags.

"Damn-it all hell!! The one time I don't cheat on my homework we have to lose our bags!! GAH!! LIFE'S NOT FAIR!!"

Rebecca sighs in irritation and rubs her temples. "Ever think that, because you cheat on your homework that it would end to you losing it?"

"But Gloria cheats off of you!!"

I make a wrong buzz sound, from one of those game shows. "Wrong answer, Ookami!! I don't always cheat off of her!! And don't drag me… in… to… … this…" My chocolate brown eyes widen at what I see before me.

Where my home once stood proud is no longer here. Instead nine over grown green-yellow-eyed lizards in some type of armor are sitting around a roaring fire staring at Mark, Rebecca, and myself. "Well look at what we have here fellas, humans." States one.

"And rare ones at that." states another, with a crooked-toothy grin on his scaly face.

"I say we eat them all up…" The rest of the lizard group laughs at their friend's comment causing me gulp at that. I've read many things about demons and depending upon their mood… there are two different types of 'eating them up'.

"Like hell you will!!" Mark puts his fist in the air ready to kill all those lizard demons if necessary. The nine demons glare at him, their eyes briefly flash a blood red.

"We've gotta run." I air whisper to them, taking a step back with frighten eyes. Rebecca nods in agreement and mimics my movement. Mark on the other hand cracks his knuckles and gives the lizard demons his famous wolfish grin.

"Well I'm not running!"

"Well you're not fighting them!!" Rebecca and I grab his writs and run for our young lives. The nine demons are rather slow, so this is looking in our favor but to be on the safe side, I guess, Rebecca tells us to split up.

She goes left, Mark continues to go straight ahead, and I go right.

* * *

Looking behind me, I see three of the nine demons are following me. "Damn-it all." I state under my shortening breathe.

My human lungs are on fire from the lack of oxygen, my throat tightens uncomfortably tight, my mouth is uncomfortably dry, and my legs feel like jell-o. But still I run, refusing to be devoured by a bunch horny lizard demons.  
Besides don't demons consider humans ugly? _Maybe I'm just on of the lucky ones. Great… _I think sarcastically with a rather sad grin on my face.

Feeling like five hours have passed, and I'm still running for my life, with the lizard demons following after me. _Come on Kitsune think, think!! Wait!! Kitsune, fox demon, fox, FOX TRAIL!! THAT'S IT I'LL MAKE A FOX TRAIL, THEN I'LL FIND A RIVER!! _

I do a sharp to the left – the lizard demons follow – then I go right, around a few trees, and all over the place; wherever I go my scent goes with me. This maneuver confuses the demons greatly, now I'm running towards the sound of running water.

"Woah!" That one word echoes several times, before it finally faded. I stand on the edge of a waterfall, my chocolate colored eyes widen at the height and my breath quickness and I shake. Not only did the demon chase give me a fright now this ridiculous height is shaking me up.

I take four steps back before I hear the screech of one of the lizard demons.

Two more of the scaly demons come out of the dark woods. "There's nowhere else to run, little girl." The one in the center says, bring out an ancient katana while smirking. The other two fallow their leader's actions, both with crooked grins.

I take two steps back once they advance towards me, but then I remember the ledge. Looking down I see that the waterfall's white flurry end, making me sallow the lump in my throat. _If I stay here I'll mostly likely die by the demons, but if I jump I could die from the underwater whirlpools. I absolutely refuse to die by demonic hands, so… jumping sounds the best option. _

I turn my back to the demons, rather determined to live. The wind blows moving my school uniform's skirt with it, and ruffling my shirt. "Look fellas she's going to jump! HAHAHAH!!" the loud laughter greatness three times, I ignore the laughter and bring my hands above my head.  
_Damn demons. _With that thought I dive into the roaring water, away from the baka demons.

My body dives into the water, I quickly swim up lungs screaming for the oxygen and wanting get away from the waterfall's underwater whirlpools. Once above the surface I take a deep breath of the Makai air, but some of the water enters my mouth.  
The speeding water takes me on the fastest/danger-est ride I've ever rode in my life. Trying to keep my head above the water is the hardest thing for me right now. Images of my two closest friends and my loving family keep coming in my mind, making me fight.  
My body hits boulders, both above and under the water. Bruises will form if I survive and I'll most likely feel a few broken/bruised bones.

I crawl to shore once the rapids are over. "Thank God, that's over with!" I cough up buckets of the river water. Still on all fours I look over myself, by some miracle I have no injuries. "Well that's good. Now I won't die if by injuries, but by hypothermia. Just great…" I stand on wobbly legs and look around from some dry wood.

I found several decent amounts of dry wood and some long blades of grass. I make a tepee out of the wood surround by smooth oval rocks. "Now I know why Granny had me and Neko take Girl Scouts." I put my wet, cold, hands close to the fire I created. I sit close for warmth, but not to close to get burned.

"I really hope that Neko and Ookami are alright." After the energy spent all I want to do see sleep for a while, but the thought that a demon could come and eat me while I'm sleeping makes me want to stay awake.  
Through the battle, the wanting to sleep grew greater and I softly fall to my left and close my eyes.

+Somewhere in Makai+

"COME-ON YOU FILTHY SON-OF-A-BITCHES!!" A rather loud teen male shouts at the green lizard demons. His body has a few cuts and bruises, but nothing compare to the once armored demons. "ARE YOU GONNA FIGHT, OR JUST WOBBLE THERE?!"  
The piercing green eyes glare at them, as the demons get into their weak fighting stances. "Pft! Waste of time." Mark smirks and the demons slowly run at him. "Eat this up, bitches!!"

With his strong fists, Mark punches each of them in the face with amazing speed. Quickly grabbing one's katana, the human ookami stabs them in their 'hearts' and throats. His school pants have the blood of lizard demon on them, but right now he could careless about his clothes. "I… just… hope… that the… girls… are… okay…" He says to himself between ragged breaths.

He takes the katana's sheath away from the dead lizard. "I'll be using this from now on if you don't mind." Mark glares down at the three bloody lizard demons. "I hope you burn in hell." He says coldly.

A shrilled scream cuts through the Makai air. Mark runs towards the sound as fast as his legs can carry him. "Please, be Gloria or Rebecca!" he pries to himself.  
Seeing three demons trying to jump into the high tree, luckily they didn't realize that their armor was holding them down. "Somebody help!!" The cry of his friend Neko breaks out.

"YO!! LIZARD BREATHS!!" The demons stop their jumping and look at the male human. Mark takes out _his _katana with a wolf's smirk. "Just how low will you demons go?" he gets into a battle stance.

"Th-that katana…?" one points the blade coated in lizard demon blood.

"Oh, this? Heh. Your pals didn't put up a good fight, as I intended. Shame really… cause now I'm pumped up for another fight." His smirk widens seeing the demons pull out their katanas.

"Hope you don't plan on living after this you filthy ningen." The one to the left states.

"Then what does that make you three?" Mark asks with a raised eyebrow.

Anger by that question the three lizard demons run at him to attack. Swinging their white blades at him, but not landing any blows. "To slow." Mark states dodging the katanas' strikes.  
"Now its my turn." Once at the base of the tree Mark gets into a battle stance he'd created, while fighting on the streets. "Die." The black haired ookami says darkly.

Zipping past the lizard demons with unimaginable speed, Mark kills the three green ugly demons. He smirks at his handy work. _Now to find Gloria and the demon's that want to 'eat' her. _

"Ummm… Mark," The young hero looks up at the light brown haired-blue eyed girl in a tree. "Do you mind if you turn the other way 'til I get down?" Mark gives his tree-climbing friend, but turns the other way while sheathing his sword.  
Hearing a very faint 'thump' Mark turns around with a smile, once his green eyes saw one of his best friends.

Rebecca brushes the dirt and wood off of her tan-black trimmed school uniform. "So glad I wear shorts under this thing." she says to herself. Mark wraps one of his arms around the small girl's frame. "And you climbing ridiculously sized trees is why we call you Neko!!" Mark pats her shoulder with his goofy grin on his face, wanting to lighten the near death mode.

"Mark, have you seen Gloria?" Rebecca suddenly asks, concerned about her sister and friend.

Mark unwraps his arm around her and his facial features gain a serious look to them. "No I haven't." he states plainly. Rebecca sighs, worry lying within.

Hours go by, looking for a friend in an unknown forest is hard than it looks. "Mark I think we should go by our nicknames, just to be on the safe side." Rebecca says, looking up at her eight-teen year old friend. Mark gives her a stern nod, showing that he heard.

_Ookami must be really worried about Kitsune. Normally he would've cracked countless jokes by now. _Rebecca's sky blue eyes look around the darkening Makai forest.

"We'll rest here for the night, Neko." Mark stops brutally. "Neko why don't you go fetch some dry wood?"

Rebecca crosses her arms over her chest with a glare. "I'm not a dog, you know?! Go get it yourself!"

"Come on, Neko!! I'm hurt!!" whines the human ookami, while pointing to one of the cuts on his face. "Hmph, that didn't stop you from looking for Kitsune, now did it?" Mark gains a blush across his nose. "My point exactly."

The two human 'demons' both look for dry decent firewood. They both watch the fire dance and break the wood with worried expressions. "So, Neko, do you think Kitsune is okay?" Mark asks his much like cat friend, with somber green eyes.  
Rebecca nods her head. "Yes she's fine, Ookami."

"How do you know?" He asks tilting his head.

"I don't know, I just have this feeling that's she fine… for now…" She mumbled that last part to herself.

The two friends fell asleep on opposite sides of the roaring fire, knowing that they'll need their energy to find their brown haired kitsune.

+Next Morning (Gloria's POV)+

"Mmmm…" My chocolate eyes flutter open wanting to get use to the sun's bright rays. I sit up rubbing under eyes, ridding them of the Sand Man's… sand. Once sitting up straight I look at myself with wide eyes. "I'm-I'm alive…" I bolt up with a happy face. "YES THANK-YOU LORD!!" I dance around the hot fire embers, laughing. Not only that but I'm bone dry, too. "I must never jump off a waterfall again."

After putting the embers out I continue to walk around the Makai forest, several hours. "NEKO!! OOKAMI!!" Deciding it would be better to shout their nicknames then their real names. "NEKO!! OOKAM-Oof!!"

"Damn tree root." I unlock my ankle from the uprooted tree root. Picking myself I dust off the dirt and leaves off of my white school shirt and tan skirt. "Why did Ookami have to push… us… through… that…"

I don't finish my loud thought; looking ahead of myself I see another demon. But, unlike the first group this guy strikes fear into my heart. On instinct I take one step back, avoiding the tree root.  
He has _really _long black hair some strands are out of place, violet slanted eyes, dressed in all black but the inside is red, and what I find the most creepy is the mask over his mouth.  
I try to match his appearance to the images in my demon book.

My eyes widen once I figure out who he is. "Karasu…" I let out in a hushed whisper. Karasu let out a girlish chuckle. "It would seem that even the ningens have heard of me." I lost some of my fears after the chuckle he just did.

_Yoai… _I think with an emotionless look on my face. I read that Karasu enjoys seeing the fear and pain on his victims' face. _So if I just keep my face emotionless he won't blow me up, with those invisible bombs of his. _

The both of us stood there staring at one another, not moving. A breeze blows past us moving our clothes. A sizzling sound comes with the breeze, making my chocolate eyes in fright. _Uh-oh! _

"AHH!!" My scream cuts through the air. One of Karasu's bombs have blow up on my right leg. Another one I felt blow up on my left elbow, another scream erupts from throat. Back, stomach, scream, scream, thigh, scream, shoulder, scream.  
I no longer know where he's hitting me, for now all I feel is a numbing pain that surrounds it still making me scream… but not for help. And I still stand proud, refusing to fall.

"It truly is amazing." He says. "Normally I have demons begging or they're dead by now." He looks over my bloody and broken body. I can't see that well now but I know he's smirking behind his damned mask. "Heh, I'll still kill you and your friends." A bomb blows up on chest, sending to fly into a tree and scream.

"Uhhh…" I cautiously open my eyes, afraid of what I'll see. When I do fully open my eyes I'm not surprised to see my blood everywhere; most of it is on the ground, some even it made it on the tall trees, and near Karasu's feet.

The bomb demon's footsteps are getting louder, sounding that he's coming towards me. _I refuse to die by demon hands. _I glare up at him, no blood is on my face but I feel the sting in my eyes that I hadn't felt for a week.

Karasu lifted me up with just two fingers under my chin. "You still have that damned fire in your eyes." He says.

"Jigoku e ike!" I tell him. His violet eyes flash a dark red color and he throws me across the valley of blood. I bite my lower lip from screaming out in pain. The left side of my face is now on the bloody earth and my long dark brown hair is spread across the blood.

"You little bitch." Karasu's foot presses my head into the Makai ground. "How dare you say that to me." He presses his foot harder, making me groan.

"How dare you kill an innocent beings." I retort, but to be met with a blow to what's left of my stomach. The blow was forceful and sends me to crash into a tree and break it.

I fall off the tree landing on my butt, but not having the energy to stay sitting up I fall on my back. My breath is becoming ragged, my vision fading in and out and I'm seeing double, and I feel completely weak.  
Karasu is now standing tall and smug above me. Holding out his right hand (palm face me) I see small green sparks. _Here comes another blow…_

"Karasu!" Someone shouts. The violet-eyed demon looks in the direction of the voice, I slowly turn my head towards the voice, too. "Don't bother blowing her up, she'll die by being devoured or bleed to death. Lets go!" I really can't see clearly so I can't see the other male demon. _But if he can order Karasu around like this, he must be stronger than him. _

Karasu glares at the bulky demon that orders him to leave this girl to die. But enjoys that she'll die by torture. "Very well."

Karasu takes his leave, but I'm pissed that he'll try to kill my two best friends. "Karasu!!" I growl out. He turns around, but what he sees makes his violet eyes to widen with shock.

Miraculously I'm able to stand on my two bloody feet. With the tree's help I stand proud, with a fire in my chocolate colored eyes. Glaring at the demon that's responsible for my body's state. I glare at his unbroken and clean body. "Don't you DARE go and kill my friends!!" I shout at him. But, yet again, he lets out a girlish chuckle. "Oh? And just what are you going to do, little one?"

'_Little one.' Youko… _Those two words reminds me so much of Youko Kurama.

I say nothing but glare harder at Karasu. He lets out another one of his chuckles and holds up his right hand. "You'll meet your friends in hell." With that I feel a bomb blow up on my back.

"AHHHH!!" I'm thrown back into my pool of blood on my stomach. Hearing retreating footsteps of Karasu and whoever told him to leave me alone, I turn my head to where he once stood. _No… he'll… he'll… _I can't finish the thought fearing that if I do it'll happen.

I feel something wet roll down my face. Painfully I move my right hand up towards my face. I touch close to where my eyes are, bringing my hand down I 'see' that I'm crying tears of blood. _Heh, well what do ya' know? Dieing doing the thing I've haven't done in awhile… just… great…_

I feel my body go limp, my vision gains blackness around the area I can see, my eyelids gain I heaviness to them. I close my eyes knowing that I'll never open them again. _Mark… Rebecca… I am truly sorry… _That's my last thought.

+Somewhere in Makai, inside a small hut… thing+

"AHHHHHHHH!!" Both Rebecca and Mark grasp their hearts. Tears erupt from Rebecca's icy blue eyes; she leans forward crying heavily her heart feels broken… crying in pain agony. Mark punches the ground (with the hand that isn't hold his pained heart), his tears brimming his emerald eyes – one or two falling on the hut's wooden floor. "Gloria…" they both whisper out in pain.

"She can't be… no…" Rebecca cries harder, still grasping her heart.

"Gloria… you're strong… you can't be… _no_!" Mark squeezes his eyes shut, tears coming out.

Both humans cry in the small hut by the calm river. Whispering the brunette kitsune's name out in pain and refusal the feeling that's she is gone from this world… and them… forever…

**_Note:_ 'Jigoku e ike!' means 'Go to Hell!'  
****I hope that this chapter was long enough, peeps!... peeps...? Hmph! Well anyway, it took up 12 pages on Microsoft Word... so I'm hoping that this was long enough.  
**


	6. Heart Crystals

**It took me long enough, right?  
Well I hope you all enjoy this chapter. Read, enjoy, and (give a nice) review.**

**Ch. 6: Heart Crystals**

_Cold. Darkness. Alone. So this is death? Odd, I thought I would have to go through a trail or something before He made His decision._

_Why did I die so early in my life? Didn't He have something great planed for my life? What about my hopes and dreams for the future… my friends and family?  
__Well… I'll finally get to see my mom and dad after ten years._

_And… the world of death smells like fresh roses._

My chocolate brown eyes open slowly, blinded by the light admitting from the silver roses. I lift myself up being careful not to fall.  
Looking around the area my eyes widen with realization. "No, this can't… be…" I whisper to myself.

Picking up the white dress I run towards the lake. Sitting on my knees I bring a hand to my mouth. My reflection… I'm dressed in the white and silver gown with the tiara. "Why…? … OKAY!!" I stand up and shout to the universal sky. "Why do something like this!? IT'S BAD ENOUGH THAT I'M DEAD, BUT NOW YOU'RE MESSIN' WITH MY HEAD!! Way to go." I glare up at the sky, and then sigh greatly. Rubbing my forehead I sit on my knees. "That's just great Gloria, yell at someone who can decide where you go…"

"Little one?" My chocolate eyes widen at the voice. Slowly turning my head around I see the silver kitsune, his golden eyes just as wide as mine.

"Youko…?" I take a step forward and so does Youko. "Youko!" I run the best I can, Youko's long muscular legs take him further. I jump in his arms once I'm close enough, and Youko spins me around.  
Like one of those – crappy – romance movies/books.

He keeps me in his embrace, refusing to let me go or for my feet touch the ground. "Youko…" I rub my nose against his muscular, but lean, neck receiving the sweet smell of roses. He rubs his cheek against my face with a deep long purr, and gets the smell of my scent.

"I'm so glad that I get to see you again, little one." Youko purrs out. I move my head slowly towards his face and open my eyes half way. My arms wrapped around his neck, his arms around my waist. Right now I just don't want to let go of him, Youko Kurama.

"I thought you said that we'd never see one another again." I whisper out.

Youko's silver fox ears twitch at the statement. But I feel his lips move slightly, into a smirk. "Would like it if I left?"

"No!" I hold on to him harder. "I haven't seen you for a week, you better not leave!!" Youko chuckles, his chest moving mine.

"Very well, little one, I'll stay for a while." His embrace tightens around my waist.

"Make it a long while…?" I ask in a whisper. Youko nods his head, resting his chin on top of my head. I close my eyes and bury my face in his neck.

A pressure on my chest causes me to look down. "What the-?!" Youko's head in on my chest… again!! "Youko?! Nani!" I try to move out from under him. _What the- under him!!_ I look around, and sure enough we're lying on the field of silver roses. "When did you- how did you-… Youko!" I whine out.

Youko chuckles and buries his head further into my chest. "HEY!! QUIT IT!" Unfortunately, he weighs much more than I do and he has my arms pinned against my sides; so I can't slap him like I did the first time. Wiggling doesn't really work either; it just makes him hold on tighter and bury his face into my chest, so I stop and just calm down looking up at the sky.

It's quite for a while; all that is heard is both of our breathing. _I could go to sleep right now._

"Little one?" Youko's smooth masculine voice breaks me from my trance. Looking down - so he knows that he has my attention - at Youko I see his silver fox ears twitch. "Why is your heart beat so fast?" I'm about to answer when I see a sly smirk form on his lips. "Are you embarrassed about something?"

My jaw drops. I'll admit I was embarrassed about this position at first; but then I've kind of gotten use to after about… … five minutes, but I soon felt my heartbeat slow down to normal.  
Remembering the time I listened to his heart, it beats rather slowly compared to the human heart and him living in Makai his whole life its no wander why he's curious.

"Well maybe your heart is just too slow!" I state. I yip once I feel a pinch, through the material of the dress, on my thigh. "What was that for?!"

"Hm… I don't know." Youko gives off a smug smirk once I bang the back of my head on the ground.

My arms are still pinned to my sides so I can't really do much and one of Youko's long legs is draped over both of mine and pinning them against the other; so I'm basically defenseless. _Great…_

What feels to be an hour, time flies by and a question keeps nagging at the back of my mind. "Youko…?" I feel him move his head, so his golden eyes see my chin and part of my face. "Are… are you dead too?"

I gasp once I feel Youko's steel grip loosen and his face is above mine, his arms holding him up. "What kind of question is _that_?"

I look to my left, not really feeling up to looking at his handsome face and his golden eyes. "Well," I begin. "I _was _blown up into a lot of pieces, and well… you're here… so…" I trail off, hoping that Youko would get the idea.

I hear Youko let out an aggravated sigh. "Gloria, just because of that doesn't mean that you're dead."

I look back up at the silver kitsune. "HA! That's where you're wrong, Youko!! I'm surprised that I didn't die after the second blow."

Seeing Youko's abnormal white fangs and his eyes flash a dangerous killing color and hearing his demonic growl, I want to shrivel away. "Gloria, I am a S class demon. Do you really think that _I _would be killed so _easily?!" _I look away, only to have Youko grab my chin and make me look back up at him. "And, do you really think that I could enter a dead human's dream?" He increases the pressure on my chin.

"No, and no…. One 'no' for I _know_ you wouldn't be killed so easily, and the second 'no' for the talking to dead people." Youko releases my chin, his evil demonic look diminishing.

I sigh; Youko once again places his head on my chest. Looking up at the sky – with its planets, constellations, comets, stars, and a black hole – I close my chocolate brown eyes. _I'm not dead… how can this be? Over a dozen times bombs have hit me (or at least that's what it felt like). Not only that but the whole jumping off a cliff near a waterfall, into the bone chilling rapid water, and spent the night alone and wet. How did I live?_

* * *

**+With Mark & Rebecca+  
Rebecca's POV**

Hearing the birds 'chirp,' I open my sky blue eyes. Two days ago my heart suffered the greatest amount of pain I've ever felt. _Could Gloria really be dead?  
_The pain was intense; it felt like my heart was shattered into tiny pieces. Then slowly and painfully put back together, although some of the pieces still litter the floor and ground. My blue eyes are still filled with pain, but the tears refuse to show themselves.

Without our brunette, playful, kitsune the two of us (Mark and I) seem dead. _Who would kill someone like that?_ I ask myself.

I don't blame myself for her death, but… maybe I could've done _something! _I sigh heavily knowing that this is a Demon's world, and we'd both be dead and Mark would most likely kill himself if both of his friends weren't here to suffer with him.

"So…" Hearing my brotherly figure's voice I look up at him. "Neko, are we going to look for her body?"

I stop in my tracks, eyes widen slightly for him asking such a question. "Of course we are, Ookami!" I lower my voice once I realize that I raised it. "What type of friends leave their dead friend and leave it to rot here in this crazy mixed up place?"

"Makai." I look up at Mark, raising an eyebrow. He looks down at me with a smirk and a glimmer in his emerald green eyes. "This place is called Makai, The Demon World in other words." He gives me a goofy smile.

Continuing our way deep into the Makai forest, we talk about times we love. How we met one another, our first days of school, lasts days of school, when Mark stuffs his face and the scolding afterwards, and of course the laughter.

Eventually, we saw and smelled the strong salty smell of crimson liquid. I immediately felt sick, and my eyes watered.  
_This is Gloria's blood. I just know it.  
_I don't know, but something yanking in my gut told me, every fiber of my being screamed, _"This is Gloria's shedding of life! She's not dead! She's gone!"_

My back straightened at the strange thought. Gloria…alive? Gone? What did that mean? If I'm going to have feelings about things, and creepy abilities of knowing things I never knew, couldn't they at least get specific?

"She's alive," I muttered.

Mark stared at me. "Nugh-ugh. Don't talk shit, Neko. It's hard to take, I know, but she's dead. Gone. What the hell do you think this is? A demon and a demon fighting, that's one thing. But this-" He spread his arms to display the gore. "This is human blood. You know why? Because its all over here, but it doesn't spread out. Demons can fight each other, but a demon and a human," He shook his head, "A human couldn't defend herself. The blood is all right here; it's everywhere, but only here. No fighting or resistance… humans can't resist… resistance of a human is equal to demon affirmation."

I wanted to cry. "But-"

"No," he placed his hand on my shoulder in comfort. It didn't help. I smiled, but I knew it didn't even come close to reaching my eyes. I walked out of his grasp, and aimlessly went to the broken tree. I saw something shining in the sea of blood.

A lump took hostage of my throat. _It was Gloria's necklace! _

I bent down, still foolishly desiring the privacy of my school-uniform-skirt. I scoop the necklace with my fingertips, trying to avoid the blood, though doing so fruitlessly. It slid to the middle of my palm, the blood forming a pool, causing a trail down my arm.

"Neko, what the hell are you doing?!" Mark's shout breaks the through the blood scented air. I ignore Mark, still trying to accept the necklace in my hand without its owner. The Makai sun causes the cross in my hand to glint an orange shimmer, like its saying 'Rebecca, I'M NOT DEAD!!'

"But how?" I let out in a whisper.

"What cha' say, Neko?" I hear Mark heavy footsteps patter on the red earth, then a sigh. "That's Kitsune's, isn't it?" I sense his emerald eyes fill up with despair.

"Of course it is." My hand tightens into a fist, disappointed that her body isn't here but something that she holds precious is. I bolt up more determined to find her…not her body…her.

I don't believe Mark. There are many things that I would have been adaptable and easy-going enough to g with the flow, but not this time. Forget the flow! This was no river flow…it was a raging sea that tosses and turns me, its will to kill me relentless and so far successful. However. The sea missed a major key.  
Hope.  
It had not yet destroyed the hope in me, the pulling in my heart that would lead me to her. To Gloria.

I look around the bloody area, hoping to find a trail of Gloria's blood. I feel Mark's gaze on me, wandering why I'm looking for something that isn't here. Soon after Mark helps me look for something, hoping to find a trail of blood or some kind of clue that she was taken away.

"Gah! What the hell!?" Mark's hands ruffle his own hair, out of desperation. "We're not finding anything!!"

"Aren't you a positive thinker." I mumble.

My sky colored eyes travel up to the similar blue atmosphere. I furrow my eyebrows together it occurring to me that she was flown away.

* * *

**+Gloria's POV+**

It feels like hours pass by in this silver universal world. Youko released my arms a while ago, so now I'm petting behind his fluffy silver kitsune ears – making him purr pleasurably.

Youko suddenly bolts up, a green thorny whip in his hand, and lowly growling. Sitting up I look around to see anything out of the ordinary, but finding nothing. "Youko…?"

Youko does not respond, his gold eyes shifting around the area. "Damn witch." His low growl turned a dangerous snarl. I blink my eyes several times in curiosity, wandering what and whom he was talking about.

The silver roses seem to be pulsing and have a fine-edge. _This can't be good. _I state bluntly to myself.

The world looks as if it begins to fade away. "Youko?" Catching his attention, he looks back but his memorizing eyes widen.

"No." he whispers out.

"No' what?" I look down at my hands, perplexed by what he meant. I saw that my hands were see-through, as was my whole body.

"Youko!"

Darkness.

Then light. Blinding. And the Makai birds aren't helping with the ringing in my ears. Lazily and shakily I place my palm on my forehead, with a tired groan. "My head is pounding." I whine.

"That's understandable, child." My eyes widen when I hear the freaky elderly voice. Not moving my head I look to the right, and what I see makes my eyes widen even more so.  
An elderly woman whose face has a black beak sprouting in the place of her nose and mouth, her arms seem to be replaced with black crow-like wings, her pale pointy ears were pierced with tiny black skulls (and whether they're real or not, I don't want to know), and her long rich black hair is tied back into a female heian hairstyle with a black bandana tied on her forehead.  
Her entire feudal outfit is midnight black; a kuro kosode hides her entire body from view, a kuro hakama hides her legs and their shape, the kuro haori conceals her chest, and the lunar belt ties the basic outfit together. A crystal ball floats by her on left side; her walking towards the center of the room signals me that she's not wearing the type of 'sandals' they wear here, but some type of heel.

Having her onyx eyes on me makes me feel on edge. Her eyes show _many _years of knowledge and destruction, and yet they still have kindness.

Her beak seems to gain a smile to it, seeing me awake. "It is about time you have woken up." She states closing her eyes. She sits by the blue fire with unreadable expression on her pale elderly face. "Do you wish to know why you have lived through your ordeal with Karasu?"

Hearing the demonic name makes my sore body tense. But I don't answer the crow witch, fearing it.

The elderly woman sighs and slowly shakes her head. I look away and ask her why I'm here.

"Well, my dear sweet child, I wanted to help you."

I begin to wander why she, a demon, would want to help me, a human. _First I die, and then I find out (through Youko) that I'm not, and now some crazy old crow is 'helping' me. Isn't my life just great?_

I must have had a 'Duh' look on my face, for the old crow is chuckling. "My dear sweet child, you and your two friends don't know the power you all possess."

I look at her with a glare on my face, but with curiosity shining in them.

"Try sitting up."

Now my face gains a 'Are you insane' look, but hearing her chuckle I decided to endure the pain.

Using one of my hands for support and the other to hold up the thick black blanket, I slowly sit up. Miraculously I don't feel the burning, stinging, pain like I thought I would. But only a numb type of feeling.  
Confused as to what's going on, I look back up at the crow woman.

Her black eyes returned to the dancing blue fire. "It truly is amazing what the Heart Crystals can do…." she states to no one unparticular. Her crystal ball floats into the fire, making the blue flames change to purple. The tip of the roaring flame splits and grows above, creating a circle and an image of a Valentine beating heart showing. The crow's black eyes gain admiration in their depths.  
"The Crystal of Healing has the ability to heal any wound. Whether it be new or old, large or small, sickness or injury, but only physical pain." Her scary eyes follow to me.  
"Have you ever been sick for a long period of time?"

I slowly shake my head; my throat refuses to work. Her beak slowly forms a skin crawling smile.

"Have you ever touched one of your friends wounds, and then nothing be there?"

I nod my head, getting more freaked out by the minute.

Her coal colored eyes travel to the beating heart that soon becomes clear but still has a pinkish hue color. "And your friend, Rebecca or 'Neko,' seems to be pulled by a force, correct?"

Recalling the whole portal, thing, I nod my head again. _How does this crow demoness know all of this?_

"And, she passes many tests – and such – without much studying?" Jeez!! Is this woman a stocker?

The clashing of two swords erupts through the small hut. Looking up at the heart I see two ancient fighting swords pierce through the heart, creating an X through the clear pink heart.

"Your male friend, Mark or Ookami, seems to always have the need to fight and be protective of you and Rebecca?"

With a hard glare I nod, getting less freaked and more agitated, trying not to growl at the elderly woman who 'saved me'.

Her black eyes penetrate my hard brown eyes. Her beak gains a kind smile, reaching her eyes while I keep my stern look.

"All three of you contain the three Heart Crystals: the Crystal of Healing," the Valentine heart begins to beat stronger. "the Crystal of Knowing," the heart seems to get clearer. "and the Crystal of Courage." The two swords become sleeker.  
"With the these united crystals all three of you shall be unstoppable. But divided you all have your own power.  
"Before I forget, the Crystal of Healing has a barrier around it (your heart to be more specific)-"

"But what about my friends!" I hoarsely shout, rubbing my neck.

The old crow woman sighs while shaking her head slowly. "I'm afraid that they don't have protection around their hearts. Because your crystal has the ability to heal it _must _have a barrier, for if someone attempts to kill you your heart will be protected and you will still be alive. Much like you are now." She moves her hand up and down in display of my body.  
"If someone wants your Heart Crystal, you must surrender it. While your friends, unfortunately, might get stabbed in the heart and the jewel shall 'float' out and into the person's hand."

"Again, that's unfair." I say lowly, not wanting to harm my vocal cords again.

The black crow sighs. "In Makai its kill or be killed. You, my sweet child, are-"

"STOP!!" I yell loudly, bolting up and dropping the black blanket. "I'm _not _your child, nor will I ever dream of it! Right now you're being a thorn in my side; saying things about 'Heart Crystals' and talking about my friends like you've known all of your life. NEWS FLASH!! You don't!"

My voice is no longer sore, but a cold wind makes my body shiver and slowly fall to my knees - holding myself to keep warm. I hear the crow demon sigh and the clicking of her heeled shoes.

Looking down I see that my chest, arms, hands, stomach, legs, my whole body resembles a mummy! The only place where I'm not bandaged is my face and neck area. (Luckily for my privacy my human world underwear is still on, but sadly shown to the world.)

Feeling the thick blanket around shoulders, I look up at the back of the crow demoness, confusion shining in my chocolate orbs; but I grasp the blanket covering my body.

"Yes, I don't know them well but I do know the power they possess. Their, and your, Heart Crystals give off a powerful aura; most - who are able to sense such things – will think of you three as S class demons, not wanting to mess with you. But-"

I interrupt her, with closed eyes and a stressed sigh. "There's always a 'but'."

The crow woman calmly continues. "You must learn how to control the power.

Especially the Crystal of Knowing, for if she looks into something that mustn't be looked into… I don't know what will happen." The demonic crow shakes her head slowly, her beak gaining a frown. "The Crystal of Courage may want to learn how to control his temper, and learn more fighting skills." I chuckle lightly, thinking about Mark and his rash temper.  
"But you, Gloria, don't have to learn much. Just be sure you heal the right people, your tears are the best way of healing a loved one."

Changing the subject, away from these 'Heart Crystals' I ask her when I'm able to go and look for my friends.

"As soon as, your body is no longer sore. Which should be by tomorrow's afternoon." She replies with a smile. Now that the whole 'knowing my friends when she doesn't' thing is over with, I feel strangely calm.

Fixing the blanket I slowly fall back to the wooden floor, wanting more rest, closing my eyes. _I hope my friends are okay…._ With that last thought I drift off to my dream world.

* * *

**+Rebecca's POV+**

"Here we are, Neko." I look up at the wooden sign. My face gains a disgusted look to its features.

Mark thought it would be best if we headed into a demon's town, wanting to know the names of the lizard demons. I had a feeling that we would have to go to a bar; with Mark's knowledge of this type of place we _should _be fine.

I grip on to the, now golden, cross hoping to find something here that'll give us a lead to find Gloria.

**_Note:_** Is it me or is there a lot of sighing in this story so far?  
Anyway, I'll _try_ to update ASAP. (Need the nice reviews people!!)


	7. Finding You

**Disclaimer!! Well... Youko and Kuronue really don't show up in this chapter I still don't own them (though it would be SO COOL if I did). But Gloria, Rebecca, Mark, and Achlys I DO own!**

**Gomen nasai that it took so long for this chapter to be posted, but I got it out before school started... here at least.  
Please enjoy this chapter, read, and review!**

**Ch. 7: Finding You  
****_(Still Becky's POV)_**

Griping onto Mark's black school sleeve, I cover my nose hoping to block the stench of wet… gah! _I'm a fourteen-year-old girl I shouldn't smell this!! _I look around this 'bar;' the room has dimly lit candles staying far away from any corners, there are drunken men passed out at their tables and some still drinking only with whores on their laps.

I quickly bury my head in Mark's back afraid I might see something that virgins aren't suppose to see, but the smells and sounds are burning!

Mark stops; peaking around him I see that he stopped in front of a bar and some smelly fat dog looking man. _Everything smells in here._

_True, but this is how we're going to find anything out about Gloria's whereabouts.  
**...Look for the elder crow.  
**_Elder crow?

Seeing the man's teal eyes break into my sky blue ones he grins, seeing the innocent look in them. Having a gut feel on what he's thinking I lost the look of a small child and gained the knowledge of a young adult.

Mark bangs his fist on the bar's table gaining the attention of the dog man. "Nani?" he rudely asks, seeing that two teens are in his bar.

"What do you know about a human girl?"

Not moving my head, I see Mark's green eyes have a fire in them and his face has danger written all over his features.

"There's one right hidden you, baka." The inu youkai continues to clean a shot glass with a smug look on his face.

"She's not the one I'm talking about, _baka._" Mark spat in the man's face, making my jaw ajar at his bold act.

The demon's teal eyes slowly go to a dangerous blood red, markings appear on his face, and his fangs enlarge. Everything in here falls death to my ears, the only things I can hear are the words exchanged between Mark and the inu youkai.

"You should watch your tongue, human." Inu youkai growls out. His markings become more jagged and his fangs grow longer and wider seeing Mark's cocky smirk.

_**This'll be good.** _Nani? Why's there a male's voce in my head?

_**A 'D' class vs. a cocky human, most interesting.**_

_**How can two humans – or three if their 'friend' is alive – live in Makai? Oh well, FIGHT!!**_

_**How odd? These two humans have the aura of a 'S' class demon….**_

This is really weird. First something tells me that Gloria isn't dead but gone, now I'm hearing male voices in my head. … What the heck is a 'S' class demon'? Maybe I should've taken some head medicine, or something, before I left home.

The sound of a katana being unsheathed breaks my train of thought. I give a quiet gasp; Mark's new sword is pointing at the youkai's neck (the youkai's marks and fangs has seemingly diminished), showing his white teeth and quieting the other demons.

"Now," Mark says in a dangerous tone that I've, nor Gloria, had never heard before. "Where. Is. The. Brunette. Human. Kitsune."

Something strikes my mind, forcing me to look on the opposite side of Mark I see three scaly green lizard youkai that don't seem to mind the whole human ordeal unfolding near them. I tug on Mark's black sleeve, my light blue orbs not leaving the sight of the youkais.

"Nani?" Mark says in a gentler tone to me, than the inu. All I do to answer his question is point in the direction of the green begins. His deep green orbs follow to where I'm pointing, and soon after his eyes widen in surprise but soon harden into a fueled glare.

Snapping his head back at the prettified inu. "Stay." Mark says. I couldn't help but think of it funny that he told that to a dog demon.

Mark walks over to the three youkais slowly, but at the same time fast, with each step made this place all the more dangerous.

Mark stops their conversation rather rudely. Mark grabbed the one closest to him by the back of his collar, pulled the lizard to his chest, and placed his katana at the youkai's vulnerable neck – making him and his pals freeze.

"Where the hell is Kitsune." What Mark just said was more a statement than a question.

"The human girl that was with us before you and your comrades chased us." I say to clarify what we were talking about.

The two who aren't in a death grip look at one another and gulp, I raise a light delicate eyebrow in suspicion.

Mark presses his katana closer to the lizard's neck. "Well…?"

"She jumped off the waterfall!" Hanging around with Gloria over the years I learned to understand when someone talks this fast.

My eyes harden into a glare. "What do you mean she jumped?"

"Exactly what we said, before we could do anything-" The demon that is Mark's death grip suddenly stops, for Mark has subconsciously moved the ancient Japanese fighting sword so now the demon's neck is bleeding slightly.

"Do you know where her body is?" Mark asks dangerously slow.

"… No." The demon visibly flinches.

"Then you and your 'friends' are of no use to us."

"Ookami! No!!" To late, with a few movements of his katana the lizard demons are dead. Blue blood pouring from their wounds Mark and I leave the bar leaving all different types of youkai's to think about what they've just seen.

"A lot of good that did us, Neko." After placing the sword back into its sheath, Mark places his hands behind his head.

"It was your idea in the first place," My mind drifts back to the sea of human blood. I visibly shiver causing bumps to form on my arms, so I rub them.  
_How can she NOT be dead, but be gone? _I look up at the sky, a habit that comes naturally to me at times like this. _Gloria, wherever you are I hope that you're all right._

**+Gloria's POV+**

"GAH!! Watch it, will ya!" I demand. I'm now fully healed but before I go the old crow, whose name is Achlys, said it would be best if I train with some weapon; and the weapon is a bow and arrow. And I nearly got my forehead pierced through.  
Achlys was kind enough to give me some of her spare clothes, which I found really odd considering that I'm dressed like priestess. My hair is done in a high ponytail wrapped in a dark red bow.

"Child, have you forgotten how you've survived against Karasu?" A gentle smile places itself on her black beak.

"No…." I mumble. "But it's just a force of habit to dodge any type of danger that comes my way!"

She chuckles at this excuse and readies her next arrow, showing me how to notch one properly. Letting go of the arrow she hits the bull's eye straight on, a target above my head. "Now you try, Gloria."

"Okay…." I'm rather uncertain about this whole thing, can't I just find one of those demon guardians? Though that sounded great I'd have to gain it's trust, and God only knows how long that'll take.

Readying my bow and arrow I take aim at the mark above Achlys' head. _Please miss Achlys. _I beg to myself, squinting one eye. But I quickly open it once the black crow demoness orders me to keep both eyes open.

I gulp down the on coming lump in my throat and fire the arrow, shutting my eyes.

There's no scream, sound of blood pouring, ripping of flesh, and heavy breathing. Opening my eyes I see that I've hit the mark!

"HAI!! ALRIGHT!!"I jump up and down, happy that I finally hit my mark. "I did it!! I did it!! I did it!!" I sing, jumping in circles.

The sound of gentle chuckles makes stop my victory dance. "Hai, you did, Gloria. Now," Achlys closes her coal colored eyes. "It is time for you to go and look for your friends."

My chocolate eyes fall towards the grassy green Makai earth._ My friends. … Rebecca and Mark, Neko and Ookami. _I couldn't help but smile remembering their faces. It seems, like, forever since I last saw them both.

I grip my bow. _The last time I saw them was when we where running for our very lives. _Hot tears brim my eyes; I quickly close my eyes ever since I got here tears keep coming and I refuse to let them spill, but some find a way to escape my closed eyes.

"Gloria?"

Hearing the calm voice of the elderly crow demoness I quickly wipe away my tears and run up towards the small cone-like hut. "Hai, Achlys?"

She sits in front of a roaring white fire. _That fire always seems to be a different color…. _

"Come sit, child." She 'points' one of her raven wings on the other side of the fire. I do as she says, odd… she reminds me so much of my Grandma… minus the whole crow look. The ghostly fire forms the same circle it did before only now it shows the woods.

"Nani?" My eyes are filled with confusion. I know what the woods look like, so why- "REBECCA, MARK!!"

I get on my hands and knees amazed that they're still alive, unnoticed by me tears of joy ride down my smiling face.

Mark is slicing down branches, low vines, bushes, and other types of vegetation that are in his way with an ancient Japanese fighting sword, a katana. Rebecca is calmly walking behind him, slim arms crossed over her chest.

They're exactly the same as they are last time I've seen them.

Rebecca with her mid-back light brown hair sways to and fore with each step she takes. Her sky blue eyes follow Mark's clean katana blade. Her creamy colored skin being silhouetted by the Makai leaves. And she's still wearing her school uniform.  
Mark's short, shaggy, wild, hair moves rapidly due to the amounted force to puts into his swings. His evergreen eyes are dancing with a fearful fire; only when he's extremely pissed off is when one sees this fire. His slightly tanned body is forming sweat beads. He's still dressed in his uniform, too.

**"**_**Damn-it-all-to-hell!"** _He says through his slices.

**"**_**Will you calm down, Ookami."** _The thing Rebecca said was more of an order than a question.

Mark stops on the spot and whips his head around to face Becky. _**"CALM DOWN!!"** _

_There's that vain again. _I sigh at Mark's temper; I look back up at them both beginning to wonder what they're going to talk.

**"_How, in God's name, do you expect me to CALM DOWN!!"_**

**"**_**Just take a deep breath,"** _Rebecca inhales through her mouth in demonstration. _**"And exhale."** _She says with difficulty, due to the fact that her lungs are with air, but exhales releasing the oxygen.

**"_Breathing isn't going to help with anything!!"_**

**"**_**It helps keep you alive."** _Rebecca states matter-of-factly.

Mark anime falls to the ground; I give a small giggle hearing Neko's response.

**"**_**Damn, onna…."** _Mark mumbles to himself. He jumps back to life. _**"Now to find Kitsune!"** _He swings to his katana left, right, up, and down.

Rebecca rubs in-between brows and fallows after the encouraged human wolf, mumbling to herself. _"**Now if only he's this inspired about school." **_

The image fades and the circle goes back into the fire.

"They're heading east." Achlys tells me.

"East, huh? … ALRIGHT!!" I punch the air. I quickly grab my bow, quiver, and arrows. Fastening the quiver on my back I place the arrows inside and do the same thing with my bow. "Time to move out!" Running out with lighting speed I head towards east.

"Child?"

I stop, kicking up dirt as I do so. "YEAH!?"

"East is that way." Achlys points in the opposite direction that I'm running.

"Oh," a blush finds its way across my nose. "I knew that!" I head towards where she's pointing.

_Wait almost forgot. _I make a quick dash towards the kind demoness and gently grip her elderly shoulders.

"Achlys, I promise to visit whenever I can."

She chuckles softly and her midnight winds pat my hands. "I know you will, child." Her matching beak smiles.

I give her my own smile and release her shoulders. "I'll see ya' 'round, kay." Seeing the kind, elderly, demoness nod I run off waving goodbye.

* * *

"I know these big feet anywhere… Mark's been here and so has Becky." I say inspecting a rather large footprint and a smaller heeled-print. Standing up I dust of the dirt and fallow the feet.

"I hope their close, I can't take much more of being on my own."

I hate being by myself; I've always had my friends with me. If not both, one shared the same class as me. Why didn't I ask Achlys if she could come with me?

"Damn tears." I wipe away the on coming water works. Maybe I'm allergic to this world.

Running with speed I never knew I had I see to 'oddly' dressed figures, causing me to break out into a sprint.

"NEKO, OOKAMI!!" I wave my hand in the air.

The two figures turn around slowly, not knowing if the voice they just heard really belongs to their brunette kitsune. But once they turn around fully and see the enlarging running priestess. Her long dark brown swishing back and forth and chocolate colored eyes filled with great joy.

"I KNEW IT!! She is alive!" Rebecca yells with joy and runs up to me.

Once we reached each other we hug one another like never before. Giant bear hug attack! Mark soon joins us adding a great force and lifts both of us off our feet.

"I'm... so glad... that... you're both... all right... gah!" I say through difficult breaths.

"We should be saying that to you!" Mark exclaims, setting us both on our feet. Though we don't let go of each other. "Where the hell have you been, Gloria?" Mark gentle hits the top of my head with the butt of his katana.

"She's been with someone who took great care of her, the elderly crow." I nod, agreeing with what Rebecca said.

Mark gets right in her face a lazy expression on his face. "How the hell do you know this?" He pokes her forehead.

Swiping away his hand, Rebecca gives a cat-like grin. "Because, I know everything."

Mark and me look at one another and mushroom sigh. "Damn, onna."

Rebecca's grin widens, gives a peaces sign, and 'meows' like a kitty.

* * *

"_C'mon!!_ Kitsune!! Why did you blind fold me, and give Neko _my _katana?" Mark whines blinded and sitting on the opposite side of a humongous Makai tree, his sword being pointed at him by Rebecca.

"Because, I smell like blood and it feels like my hair hasn't been washed in weeks!!" I exclaim from a calm flowing river my arms crossed over my chest, wanting my privacy.

"It's only been about two short days!"

"Ookami," Rebecca says. "She's been in her own blood, meaning she technically had a bloodbath. And I'm guessing that having the stench of your own blood in your hair is _no fun. _Especially, if you've met death's doors."

"Ya' know," I begin. "It might be the water's temperature but... I got goose bumps when you said that!!" I rub my upper arms with a freaked out look on my face.

"Just hurry up! I wanna find a place with a roof tonight, maybe a place near a village."

I sigh and agree to that.

Taking a gulp of the air I dive underneath the blue, clear, liquid. Swimming, twirling, diving further, I think about what Achlys told me… about the Hear Crystals. _I should tell soon. After all, they have the right to know it does have something to due with them. I just think about what I'll say to them. _

I quickly reach the surface and greedily take in breaths of fresh air. My dark brown eyes look over to where Mark and Rebecca are. _I think that I always knew that there was something different about us. _I quickly get out of the water and put my underwear on and wrap my chest up with the 'Makai bra'. _I mean I never broken a limb even after a bad fall, or having something heavy fallen on me. I don't get that sick easily, but when I do I get hit with everything all at once and it normally lasts for about two days or so. If, God forbid, my friends got really sick or seriously hurt and I'd check it out there would be nothing there. _I pull on the white tabi socks.  
_Becky seems to have an answer for everything and knows practically every answer to a question on a test/quiz. And she… was 'pulled' to that portal a few days back and whenever we go past a graveyard she looks back at them with sympathetic eyes or something… and cats, I think, are pulled by an unknown force. _I dress my lower self with the red miko pants and the wooden sandals.  
_Mark's always getting himself into fights. He always seems to win them sporting a few good hits to himself. No matter what it is he's afraid of nothing even if it's a giant bug, sharks, heights, or even dieing. Just like a wolf. _I put on my miko white shirt and bring my hair back up.

My hands freeze up in the sky, near my hair, and my chocolate orbs widen. _Why the hell do they call me kitsune?! _

"Oh well. I'll figure it our sooner or later." I shrug my shoulders and walk towards the tree.

"Alright, I'm clean as I'll ever get in this world!" I grin at them, though Mark can't see it.

* * *

We've walked several miles, or are yards longer…GAH!! I hate math!

Anyway.

Night has fallen over the demonic world. All three of us couldn't find shelter or a village for the night so we decided to sleep out underneath the stars. Mark went to go get the wood, and Rebecca and I made the fire.

Currently; Mark's cleaning his katana, Rebecca is staring at the fire, and I'm laying with my arms behind my head looking at the stars thinking about how I should tell them.

"Kitsune?"

"Hm?" I look over at younger sister; with cursorily shining in my eyes, I see her poke the fire with a long sturdy stick.

"What do you have to tell us?" her voice is creepy calm.

My eyes widen, and then slowly relax and a smile makes its way across my lips. _That's another thing, she always seems to know when something is on my mind._

"Tell us…? Tell us what?" Mark stops taking care of his blade and wipes his head from me to Rebecca.

I groan getting up. "Well… its rather a long story, or rather explanation." I scratch my right temple nervously laughing.

Neko eerily moves her head, so she can face me. "We have time."

Honestly she scares me sometimes.

"Okay," I sigh. "Brace yourselves." I sit Indian style facing the roaring fire.

* * *

...

...

...

"I'll be damned." Is the first thing said after... what an hour's tale? I'm not really sure how long it was, but it felt like forever for me to finish and for a response.

"That sure does explain a lot." Rebecca says inspecting the lines of her hands. I nod in agreement.

"Hm." Mark smirks. "So that's how I've always been winning my fights." His emerald eyes watch the dancing fire. "The Crystal of Courage, huh?"

"The Crystal of Knowing."

"And the Crystal of Healing."

This is possibly one of the rare times when all of us are quiet and serious.

"Gah!" Hearing the groan and collapse of Mark makes both blue and brown eyes to look at him. Mark's form his laid near the fire, his katana, by his side, one arm underneath his head the other griping the deadly blade. "You girls might want to go to sleep now. Don't worry," his emerald eyes fall on us, the red and orange fire reflecting his eyes. "I'll protect you."

* * *

_The moon is red here. _I think while gazing at the blood colored moon, a sad look in my eyes. _'Damn witch.' When Youko said that, did he mean Achlys? He seemed so cold and dangerous. I've never seen him like that before… kind of scary. _

I visibly shiver, remembering that deadly whip in his hands and imagine the look in his golden eyes. _He seemed so relaxed and caring when we first met… okay a little pervy, too, but more caring than anything._

"Gah." I sit up and shake my head.

_What am I thinking?! He's just a dream guy! … But…. _

My chocolate eyes turn towards the fire. _When we said goodbye, it felt so real and so sad… and when he kissed me. _

I trace my lips gingerly, remembering the warmth that I felt when I woke up. I sigh and fall back on my... back.

_Does it count if you get kissed in a dream? _I turn away from the fire and yawn, covering my mouth. _I'll ask Becky about it tomorrow…._

* * *

"MAN!!" Mark bends his back backward, groaning. "Sleeping on the ground without any cushion can really give a guy back-pain." Hearing a 'crack' come from his back Mark seems to turn into jell-O. "Oh yeah… that felt nice." He says relaxing his back.

I laugh quietly at my male friend. I missed his immaturity and Rebecca's maturity.

"I almost forgot!"

Hearing Rebecca shout that makes both Mark and I look at her. Becky digs into her school's pocket and brings out my small golden cross necklace.

"My necklace!" I yell happily. I do a short run to her and allow for the necklace to gently fall in my hands. "Where did you find it?" I ask, hooking it around my neck.

"By a broken tree… where your…."

I know what she's talking about, so when she doesn't finish her sentence I don't pester her about it.

"Hey, I'm here now!" I hook my right arm around her neck. "And there ain't nothin' that's taken we away from you guys again!" I wrap my other arm around Mark's neck.

But about five minutes later, Rebecca's entire body becomes tense and her sky colored eyes alert.

"Neko?" Mark and I chores, confusion filling our eyes.

"Something with great power and energy is coming this way!" As odd as it is, her voice seems to have panic in it. All three of us put our backs to each other.

I ready my bow and arrow, my eyes gazing into the darkest parts of the forest that surrounds us. _I don't blame her though. Those damn lizards scared me, too._

Mark unsheathes his clean blade, his emerald eyes looking up at the branches. Rebecca readies herself in a stance she created, and, my guess looks towards she senses the powerful aura.

A wolfish grin forms on Mark's lips and a light green fire dances in his eyes. "Ya' know girls, I'm glad that this… whatever _it _is, is coming. I've been itching for a fight ever since I killed those lizard youkai."

Soon yellow, blue, white, purple, eyes form in the darkness of the shadows and fangs are beginning to be seen. I swallow the growing lump in throat, seeing the indigo eyes… they remind me about Karasu. Not happy thoughts.


	8. Can There Be Two Youko's?

**GOMEN!!! GOMEN!!! GOMEN!!!!  
I'm SO sorry for the massive timelap!!! Please continue to read this story!!  
But first I would like to thank all those who have commented and shall continue to read this story. ... Even though I'm probably the slowest updater ever....**

**Here are a few notes you should know before reading:  
**'Blah, blah, blah' = singing  
"Blah, blah, blah" = talking  
_Blah, blah, blah _= thinking  
_"Blah, blah, blah" = _telepathically speaking

**Please enjoy this chapter.**

**Ch. 8: Can there be Two Youko's?**

The different colored eyes quickly disappear. Human orbs shift this way and that searching for the demons' eyes.

My body is shaking and my breaths come out ragged with fright. Hot, salty, tears brim my brown eyes; events with Karasu form in my mind. My shoulders hunch forward remembering the entire warm crimson liquid and terrorizing, sharp screams I created. I try to force the tears back. With the knowledge that negative/weak emotions give demons their strength and confidence, whether they are dead or alive.

"Come on out, bitches!!" Mark shouts, bringing his katana in the air.

"Mark!" Rebecca and I harshly whisper, glaring daggers at him.

"Nani? I'm not afraid to fight," his large hands wrap around the black handle of the blade. "Come out you cowards!!"

_There's that vein, again. _I mushroom sigh.

"We're going to stay here and fight all of you, demons!"

Suddenly, I feel a force on my back pushing me down on my tummy. "Oof!" I begin to look back and yell at the one who pushed me down. "What the hell- AH!" something wraps around my wrists, tying them behind my back, and tying my ankles together, and blindfolding me.

"Or, we could just stay here and lay around." Rebecca's voice sounds. She must've gotten the same treatment I received.

"Eep! /Wow! /Hey!" All three of us chorus. I don't know what happened to them, but I'm on someone's shoulder; being treated like a sack of potatoes.

"You three are trespassing," says a deep voice.

"And your point is?" Me and my big mouth. The man roughly shrugs his shoulder, causing me to flinch a bit. _That's gonna bruise. _

I feel the motion of the demon walking and hear the heavy footsteps follow him.

"Where are we going?" Rebecca asks.

"Somewhere." Replies one of the demons.

"Well, that's real specific." Mark sighs out. I can hear a low growl close by, making my heart pound in chest.

"Calm down, Taku. These are just mere mortals, after all." The demon that's carrying me gave off an amused chuckle. "But how they all managed to survive this far is beyond me."

Another dark chuckle sounds, this time in front of me. "Hai, quite a mystery for such weaklings."

"WEAKLINGS!?" Mark shouts. I can just picture Mark's form thrashing about. "Let me go, and I'll show you a weakling!!… Woah…."

"Ookami?" Rebecca and I both ask. He lets out some kind of tired groan.

No soon after that I feel a cold feeling run down my neck. Different shapes and bright colors form in front of my wrapped eyes. My body painfully and slowly shuts down, making a groan escape my throat.

"Good night, ladies." One youkai snickers.

_Youko, help us…. _Even though he's a guy from my dreams he seems so real to me.

* * *

_**Th-Thump. Th-thump.**_

_I can hear a strong heartbeat sounding all around me. A small smile tugs its way on my lips. This reminds me of my mother. _

_When I was younger and I had a bad dream she would sing to me, with my ear close to her heart. My mother wasn't the best singer, but you could hear the love behind the words._

_**Thu-thump**_

'_Lullaby and good night  
In the sky stars are bright  
'Round your head flowers gay  
Set your slumbers till day'_

_My mom's singing voice melds with the heart. It sounds so much like her heart._

_**Thu-thump.**_

'_Lullaby and good night  
In the sky stars are bright  
'Round your head flowers gay  
Set tour slumbers till day'_

_Tears find their way to the outter corners of my closed eyes and leak out._

_**Thu-thump.**_

'_Close your eyes now and rest  
May these hours be blessed  
Close your eyes now and rest  
May these hours be blessed'_

"_Why?" I whisper to myself. "Mom, Dad," my voice cracks. "Why did you have to go?" For nearly ten years I haven't cried with grief. Ever since… then I didn't want to show any tears of dispair. Joy, maybe. I don't want to put my sadden emotions on someone else._

_**Thu-thump.**_

'_Bonne nuit cher enfant  
Dans tes langes blanches  
Repose joyeux en rêvant des cieux'  
_

_Thu-thump.__  
'Quand le jour reviendra  
Tu te réveilleras  
Quand le jour reviendra  
Tu te réveilleras'_

_Why did she speak in another laguage when I was a small child? To this day I don't know what she was saying, but hope she said that she loves me._

_I still cry._

_**Thu-thump.**_

'_Lullaby and good night  
In the sky stars are bright  
'Round your head flowers gay  
Set your slumbers till day'_

_The song plays again in its soothing tone, as I continue to cry and gasp for air. Why is it getting so cold? I can feel my warm tears begin to freeze on my face. Slowly the voice stops, but the heartbeat still goes, as freezing rain pours down on my priestess dressed body._

_Lazily, I open my grief-stricken brown eyes and sniffle. Few of the ice cubes enter my eyes making them instinctively blink away the ice. My arm feels like a million tons as I try to shield my eyes._

_**Thu…thump. Thu…thump. Thu…thump.**_

_The heartbeat begins to slow down. But every once in a while still beats, showing that it's still 'alive'._

_**Thu…thump. Thu…thump.**_

_Bone freezing water surrounds my laying form, making me shiver and my breath become visible. Slowly I sit up, fearing that I might get dizzy if I get up to fast._

_**Thu…thump. Thu…thump.**_

_Using my arms to support myself I look around the cold dark world. A sharp gasp escapes my lips. Blood. There's blood everywhere! I'm scared to look over myself, but I do so to stop the irritating voice inside my head to look. My hands shake seeing the red residue on them, moving them away I see that my pants are sticking to my legs. I look over to my right arm and see increasing amounts of red. "W-What is all of this?"_

_**Thu…thump. Thu…thump.**_

_My nose scrunches up and my eyes screw shut. Hoping that the image I've seen will go away, as well as the smell._

_**Thu…thump. Thu…thump.**_

_Through the disgusting odor, I smell the sweet aroma of roses. Slowly I peek one eye open and gaze down around myself. A smile moves itself on my face. I fully open both eyes and gaze down at the roses around me. They cover the strong stench of blood rather well._

_I recline myself down in the bed of roses, the blissful teeth still showing themselves. "Who said life isn't a bed of roses?" I whisper to one rose gradually closing my eyes._

_**Thu… thump. Thu…thump.**_

_I can feel the roses around me pulse with the heart. _

_Small drops of blood fall from the roses' thorns and petals splattering on my hands and fingers. The once warm living blood is becoming deadly cold. I open my eyes half way, wanting to fall asleep in the nice warm bed that smell's so much like Youko._

"_Hmmm?" A flash of sliver sprints by; snapping my eyes fully open._

* * *

"YOUKO!!" I bolt up shouting the kitsune youkai's name.

I look to my right hearing booming laughter. "Even female ningens dream of the fox!!" exclaims an orange skinned and green haired youkai.

I feel my pale cheeks gain a warm embarrassing color as I glare at the laughing demons.

"Kitsune?" I hear my nickname being whispered besides me. I turn my head ever so slightly seeing the owner of the voice is Rebecca.

"Kitty-Cat, what happened?" a lump of emotions fill my throat, fearing what has happened to us while we 'slept'.

"See that demon with the dark blue, nearly black, hair and onyx eyes," Rebecca leans over to my side using her sky blue eyes as a pointer. I follow her eyes, and glare once I see the youkai.

Just like Becky said, he has black-blue out of control/puffy hair and onyx glaring colored eyes. Though his hair and eyes are dark his skin is ghost white. He has markings on his face: two black jagged streaks on both of his cheeks and a navy blue shining star on his forehead. His right upper arm has a black skull and blue cross bones. He dresses very similar to Youko; only this guy has black and blue bandages over his lower arms.

I nod my head.

"He used some kind of demon magic on us, so we won't annoy them while they brought us here and know where we are."

"Demon magic?" I raise an eyebrow at her choice of words. I chuckle lightly. _Poor, Kitty-Cat-chan, means their demonic powers._

_"Is there much of a difference?"_

"YIPE!!" I whip my head towards Rebecca, ignoring the odd stares I have received from my small dog sound. _"Can-can-can…"_

_"I hear you? Yes."_

My eyes slowly widen. _"Woah. Achlys didn't say anything about talking to each other, only reading peoples' minds. Since when could you do that?"_

Rebecca simply shrugs her shoulders. _"I don't know. … I guess I could always do it."_

"_Oh, well thanks for all the help over the years. With all the tests and quizzes we've taken, you could've gone and read the teachers flippin' mind!"_

"_You're welcome." _Becky smiles kindly at me – my annoyed eyebrow twitching self. _"Gloria?"_

"_Hai?"_

"_Who's Youko?"_

**(A/N:** +yawns+** I'm getting tired maybe I should stop right here…. **+looks to right and sees pissed off readers. With chainsaws, flamethrowers, big guns, and educational school books.+  
+Anime sweat drop+** Or… I could continue….  
**+anger readers lower weapons, while I type like the wind+**)**

A blush runs across my nose and my eyes widen. _"You heard that."_

_"Gloria, the whole cave heard you!"_

_"Oh. … Ano…." _I look down at the dirt floor; suddenly having a new interest in it.

_"Gloria?" _Rebecca says in her warning tone.

_"Youko is a guy from my dreams."_

_"And…"_

_"He's a demon."_

_"A DEMON?!" _Rebecca yells in her mind making my flinch._ "Gloria, do you know how dangerous that is! To late. It's very dangerous. Oh My Gosh!"_

_"I know, I know. Demo he isn't really real, ya' know? He's just a guy from my dreams." _I smile sheepishly.

Becky blows a strand of her light brown hair out of her face, due to the fact that our arms are tied behind our backs. _"You are known for your crazy whacked-out dreams, so… I'll let it slide." _

I give Rebecca a grin and she grins back. Hearing a deep groan, we both turn our heads behind us. "Oo-Ookami?"

The eighteen-year old male groans again and shifts his build. "Just five more minutes, Kit-Kitsune." Mark lets out a beastly yawn and rolls over, so his back is facing us. I laugh lightly at Mark's immaturity, Rebecca soon joining in.

The light laughter still in affect, I look around the cave Rebecca said we are in. The natural dirt walls create a hemisphere shape, but dark wood acts a skeleton for the cave. Various lit candles are over the room we are currently in. There are some couches, stools, random pillows, four burning fireplaces in the sides of the cave, a tall bookcase by one of the roaring fires, a crimson curtain acts like a wall to separate the bar and library.

"_That's a nice combo, huh, Beck?" _I glace back her amused face.

"_Hai. Having a library and a bar close to one another is always a smart choice. _The two of us chuckle lightly. _"Only having a curtain as a wall is SO helpful." _Our chuckling increases to some extent.

"What the hell are you two ningens laughing about!" shouts an enraged youkai. Our chuckling increases to laughter. Why, I have no idea. Sometimes we laugh because people don't know what we're talking about, or a funny joke, or someone's pain (but right after we see if they're okay), or Mark's immaturity, or even an explosion in our own home.

Our laughter is cut short, due to someone karate chopping into the front of our necks. I fall on my back with a 'thud' and choke for air I can feel my brown iris' shrink, only the clear/black pupil being seen and even those I can feel minimize, from the shock and lack of oxygen.

_What… the… hell? _Even my thoughts are choking for air!

"That shut them up." The buzzing sound of a voice says, and the distant sound of knuckles crack.

_"Kitsune, you okay?"_

I choke. _"Okay, as I'll ever be."_

_"That's good."_ Rebecca sighs.

I can feel my eyes return to their normal state and my breathing return. I close my eyes and sigh gratefully. Suddenly all these negative thoughts flood my mind, no one's here to save us. Why would any demon save three teenage humans? I know that Achlys saved me, but we're in someone's cave. How can she save us? She's only one demoness against countless others.

_Maybe Kitty-Cat-chan can reason with them; she is the best one with words. _..._ But knowing demons they're going to find someway for us to work here._ I shiver in disgust, thinking about what they _would _want if we don't clarify it.

A lump forms in my throat. _Youko…._ I whine within my head. Why isn't he here? I've dreamt, where was he? _Great now I'm starting to sound like one of those obsessive girlfriends. And I'm even his girlfriend!!_

"Youko-sama…" Several whispers say that.

_Youko… -sama? There's no way. _I bolt my head up, eyes widening. The sea of the men in white is splitting from the back and towards the front. My breath gets catches within my throat seeing the silver kitsune ears.

All sound fades from my ears. The sea continues to divide; three figures are coming out of it. Though I only see the silver haired-gold eyed-seven feet tall-kawaii eared and tailed-and-excellent listener Youko Kurama. My breath returns and my eyes relax once I can see him clearly.

But, there seems to be something different about him. His eyes. They seem so cold.

"Youko?" His name comes out as a hesitant whisper.

The silver kitsune's ears twitch upon hearing my voice. I could've sworn that his eyes widened, but I could be wrong.

**(A/N:** +sighs+ **Is this legal?  
**+K (from Gravitation) has a big gun pointed to my head, so I will finish faster+** In some countries it depends on what you call legal.** +smiles+**)**

"What are these filthy ningens doing here?" Youko glares down at all three of us 'filthy ningens'. I shocked to see, and hear, him like this.

_This can't be the same Youko Kurama I know._

"You want us kill them, boss?" A creepy green, limb-twisted, black eyed, monstrously yellow fanged, split-ed tongue, covered in warts, demon asks in a disturbing snicker.

Youko crosses his lean muscular arms over his chest. His silver tail swishes and his ears twitch, his glare never wavering.

"Well don't stand there to look pretty! Are you going to kill us or not?" I hear Mark say behind me. My head whips to face him; suspired that he's awake. He emerald green eyes are glaring at the kitsune youkai in front of me.

"Throw them in the dungeon." I whip my head back at Youko - he turns to the left and walks down the semi dark hallway.

For the second time that day Rebecca, Mark, and I are thrown over some demon's shoulder. They walk in the opposite direction as Youko.

* * *

"So how long do you think they'll keep us down here? Or, will we get out for good behavior?" Mark asks from the opening of our cell, his arms crossed over his chest and his back leaning against the cold wet bars.

This place smells like death, or dieing. The unmistakable stench of rotting and burning corpses, fresh and aged blood, and internal organs enter my nose. The sounds are equally unbearable; moans of dieing demons asking for water, the constant dripping of water, claws running over the freezing gray stone walls, the heavy last breaths, the slow movement of dragging bodies, and screams not far off as someone tortures him/her.

Though the smells and sounds are agonizing, it doesn't stop me from pacing the cell all three of us inhabit. _That guy looked like Youko, but he didn't __look__ like Youko. Same hair, same height, same ears and tail, same figure, and outfit. But his eyes were so different, so… cold. Like he… no, no, he couldn't of have…. The Youko in my dreams felt so warm and open. Okay, maybe a little bit overly pervy but he's a fox demon. Aren't they all like that? _I continue to debate whether or not this Youko is the Youko I dreamt of.

I saw Rebecca walk towards one of the few dry spots when we got in here and sit down there.

"Ookami," her voice is distance from my ears. "Walk away from there."

"Why?" Even though he asks that question, he walks away.

I stop my hectic pace and gaze out towards the hall beyond the iron bars. One of the demons dressed in the white tunic and loose pants walks passed our cage, with a dead female demon. He drags her out by pulling her purple dull hair. In the dim light noticeable blood pours from her back, claws, arms, sides, and inner thighs.

The metal door opens, showing some light, but quickly slams shut.

My eyes fill up with emotion realizing what the male demon did to the female, or than beat up until death.

"Poor girl…." I hear Rebecca whisper.

"ARGH!!!!" Mark slams his better shoulder into the cage's door.

"Ookami!?" Rebecca and I shout, shocked at his action.

"I'm… not… going… to… stand… around… and wait… for our… punishment!!" he shouts as he rams into the bars, hoping to loosen them.

I shake my head with a sad laugh at his antics and continue my pacing, with my right index finger curved over my chin and my left arm behind my back. Rebecca sits down – her legs folded under her – in her place thinking with a cool expression.

**+Youko+**

Youko Kurama sits quietly inside – though it seems to be outside – on a white wooded bench, in his private garden. His arms are on the back of the bench, enlarging his chest, with a distance look is on his face.

_I don't believe it. I won't believe it! _His brows knit together in confusion. _How is it that she's here, in Makai? True I was able to enter her dream world, but I thought I was getting better at that. _Youko's silver ears stand tall at the sound of banging metal. His nose sniffs the air. Slowly Youko licks his fangs, virgin human blood is in the atmosphere.

"So you smell that, too?" Youko stays silent at Kuronue's question. "I'll take your silence as 'yes'. … What do you plan on doing with the humans?"

Youko stands up and walks towards the closed wooden door.

**+Prison Cell+**

The constant body slamming into the strong iron bars is beginning to get annoying. I stop my pacing and walk over to Mark.

I quickly wrap my arms around him, right around his elbows, stopping him ramming into the cell's door. "Will you stop that already." That came out more of an order than a question. "Mark, you are strong but do you honestly think that you can break down that door," I point towards said door. "That was made up in Makai?"

Mark glares down at me, but soon his body relaxes and dramatically falls to his knees.

**+Rebecca's POV+**

I peek open one of my ice blue eyes and watch Gloria and Mark; hearing a light thud. Gloria's right hand is hovering over Mark's bleeding shoulder. He's smiling down at her with gentle eyes, as Gloria scowls him on how sensitive a demon's sense of smell is. She's 92% sure that he's still a virgin and she's scared for him.

_Even though he's strong he can't beat a demon's strength. _I think to myself.

I was the first one to wake-up, but I refused to reveal my eyes. I could feel the wandering eyes and hear their disturbing thoughts.

I sense someone is coming. I stand up and walk towards my friends.

"There all better!" I ignore Gloria's childish talk.

"Kitty-Cat-chan, what's wrong?" Mark asks. Gloria 'hmm's in confusion. In the corner of my eye and can see chocolate brown eyes and emerald green eyes.

"Someone's coming." I tell them.

"Who is, Kitty-Cat?" Gloria and Mark walk to my sides.

"Youkais." I answer glaring at the weak lighted hall.

_No duh. _Mark's mind says.

"I heard that, Ookami."

Hearing the creak of a door opening all of our different colored eyes go up the hall. There's only one set of footsteps, but they're rather heavy.

A large, towering, pale bat demon stands in front of our cage. Mark – how's always protecting us – blocks Gloria and I from the bat's purple eyes.

Because I'm so short I can't look over Mark's shoulder, like Gloria currently is, so I have to look past his arm.

This demon's aura is really strong! Dark violet flames lick off of his flesh. I rub my eyes with my palms, and look back. Nope, it didn't work. He's still on fire, but it doesn't seem to bother him.  
Other than the purple fire on him I look him over. Unlike the other demons, which dress in white, this guy dresses in dark colors. He has black boots that wrinkle around the lower part of his leg. His legs wear purple pants and – what can be described as a long white skirt – is over his pants and crossing black belts. His chest has a black leather vest on showing all who gazed at him his muscular chest. In the middle of his chest is a silver teardrop and ruby pendant. Both of his arms are wrapped in black leather bands. He wears a witch's hat sloppily on his head. He has long black hair, that's pulled into a ponytail. I can barely see his Elven ears and through the poor lighting I see his bat wings.

_Who is this demon? When they were coming in I was trying to talk to Gloria, and asking her if that silver guy was Youko._

**+Gloria's POV+**

I look over Mark's shoulder wanting to see the demon in front of our cell.

_That guy was with Youko! _

"Either you humans are awe struck or you're utterly stupid." He tells us.

Mark growls at him, resisting the urge to run at the bars and grab the demon by the throat.

"If you humans swear to behave you can walk freely without being thrown onto someone's shoulder."

"Where are we going exactly?" Rebecca asks, still behind Mark.

"You'll just have to trust me."

"Feh," Mark sounds. "Who, in their right mind, would trust a demon?"

_I did. _I think to myself and gaze down at my feet, sadness filling my chocolate orbs.

"Well than, I guess you'll just have to stay down here and be tortured for the rest of your short life." replies bat demon.

"No!" I shout and grab onto Mark's arm. "Ookami will be good. Won't you, Ookami." I look up at him with hopeful eyes. A big smile goes across my lips hearing his sigh of defeat.

"Okay, but if anyone so much as looks at them the wrong way I'll-"

The bat demon interrupts him. "You'll what? Kill them?" he darkly chuckles.

"If it comes to that." Purple and green eyes shoot bolts at each other.

The dark demon sighs. "Well I don't like half of them, so you're probably good." He unlocks the door with a bronze key and opens our cell's door. "Lets go."

Marks walks out of the prison cell, his arms draped over Rebecca's and my shoulders, with the bat demon leading the way towards our unknown destination.

* * *

I stare at the silver fox ahead of me. His eyes as cold as an infinite amount of ice and his face showing no emotion.

I swallow a lump in my throat; I'm scared of this unknown demon, though I'd never admit it aloud.

His cold golden eyes roam over our human bodies, for a short second he looks at Rebecca longer (mostly because of the length of her skirt). He continues looking over our forms.

I see that he raises a silver brow at Mark's bloody shoulder.

"Have them all in working clothes by tomorrow's dawn…" His golden eyes lock with my chocolate ones. "They'll be working for us from now on."

I can't believe my ears. WE'RE NOT GONNA DIE!!!!

But a nagging voice in the back of my head tells me that this just the beginning of our journey.

**Notes: **Please review!!! If you review I'll get inspired to write!!! And that means more chapters!!  
And even though it's 12:00AM here, have a happy Turkey-Day!!!!


	9. Trouble Arises

**Okay, seeming how you FAITHFUL READERS aren't going to my profile; I'll tell you here.  
I want to know which songs fit best for my stories best. NOT the characters!! But the story. I've already gotten two, but from the same person just for different stories. She thinks:  
****No Longer in the Human World - Taking Over Me by Evanescence**

**_and_**

**Saved by the Legendary Thief Youko Kurama - Innocence by Avril Lavigne**

**Let me know if any of you FAITHFUL READERS have other suggestions.  
Once I think I've reached a reasonable amount I'll ask around youtube to see if they could make something (yes I have pictures if some of you know how to make AMVs).**

**Key:  
**"Blah, blah, blah" = Talking  
_- Blah, blah, blah - _= Involuntary mind reading  
_Blah, blah, blah _= Thinking to self  
_'Blah, blah, blah' _= Heart Crystal talking

**Well enjoy this chapter!! Read and give a review!**

**Ch. 9: Trouble Arises**

"This could be worse." I tell my friends - looking over our work uniforms - my weight on my right foot, my head cocked on the same side, and my hands on my hips.

**Mark's uniform has the same design as Youko's and the other men dressed in white, only Mark's is green. There's a darker green under shirt, sash/belt, shoes, and wrist bands. The outfit is entirely too large him, though he doesn't tell us.**

**I wish the outfits Rebecca and I are wearing were decent like his. Wearing this outfit I feel, like, a Fricken' Egyptian bellydancer. The skirt is white with a two inch purple border. It does go down to our ankles but the slits on the sides run up past our hips, and the dip in the front goes past our bellybutton. The 'shirt' is just as embarrassing as the skirt. It stops just below the bust and beginnings show 'just the right amount of cleavage'. It has little stud diamonds along the upper violet purple border with spikes on the side. Luckily thick straps hold the bra shirt up. Light purple fingerless gloves run up to our mid-upper arms, and a white collar with thin purple borders is around our necks. We have white shoes, too. Unlike Mark's outfit ours hug us, making me feel very uncomfortable.**

"Oh really? How so, Glow?" Mark mimics my posture.

"Well…" I tap my chin and gaze up at the light blue ceiling. "We could be-"

"ACHOO!!!"

"Bless you." Mark and I say simultaneously looking over at Rebecca, who's gently rubbing under her nose with her slim index finger.

"I think I'm getting a cold." She sniffles.

"Kitty-Cat-chan, you're always cold." I state.

"And that skanky outfit isn't helping any." Mark mutters.

He's soon on the floor with several bumps on his head. "Hentai no baka," Rebecca and I crack our knuckles with a poisonous look in our eyes.  
Rebecca sneezes again, ruining the serious/angry moment. "Gosh, I hate this." she mutters.

I sigh out. "Becky," I call my best friend's nickname and place a cool hand on her nearly bare shoulder. "You get sick very easily-"

"Which is a pain in the ass!" Mark says from his place on the carpeted floor.

I brush off what he said (mostly because it's true) and continue my say. "So I'll do some work, while you look for something warmer to wear."

"Nah, I'm good." Rebecca dismisses the offering. "After all… I'm a big girl now!" she sings.

Mark jumps back to his feet and points a finger at the human cat. "That sounds like something Glow would say."

"Shut it!" I stomp on Mark's foot making him wince.

Mark uses a nearby bedpost for support while rubbing his aching foot.

All three of us have separate bedrooms, but all the rooms are connected to one fairly large bathroom in the middle. Mine is on the right, Becky's on the left, and Mark's room is in the back – so he has to either enter my room or Rebecca's to get to his. My room and Rebecca's both have three doors; one that leads to the hallway, another leading to the bathroom, and the last leading to Mark's room. We are all currently in Becky's room.

Rebecca's bright blue eyes widen briefly, but they soon relax and glare at the wooden door. "Someone's coming…"

On cue the door bursts open, slamming on the wall making Mark and I jump in surprise.

A demon with neck length black hair, long pointed ears, tan skin, white/light gold-ish eyes, and two horns sprouting from his forehead stands in the doorway looking beyond pissed.

Coming back into my body I realize that this demon was with Youko (number two).

_I think his name is Yomi. _

"What the hell are you looking at, wench!" Yomi's booming order shocks me, and I realize that I was staring at him.

"Ano…" I look down at my feet, a light pink brushing across my cheekbones; my long bangs hide my brown eyes. Behind my back I wring my hands in nervousness.

"You damn bastard." I hear Mark growl to the horned demon. The distance sound of knuckles cracking, a sword being unsheathed, and an amused chuckle do nothing to me.

* * *

**+Becky's POV+**

"Hold on!!" I exclaim.

Quickly I wrap my arms around Mark's abdomen and place my hands on his katana's handle, stopping him from drawing his katana like Yomi had done seconds ago. My, normally, kind blue eyes harden into a striking glare at the demon in my doorway.

"Look, Yomi." I start. "I'm positive that, your _Lord _Youko wouldn't appreciate that you seriously injure one of his new… helpers. Besides," I can't help but smirk at what I'm about to say. "How would it sound to other demons if you challenged a human? Not good if you ask me."

I hear Yomi having a self-debate; whether he should challenge Mark or not.

"Pft," Yomi lets out as he sheaths his weapon. He turns on his heel. "Let's go." He growls out and walks down the hallway.

Mark follows after the horned demon with a smug look on his face, putting as much space between himself and Yomi.

I begin to, but I don't feel Gloria walking.

Looking over my shoulder I don't see her happy chocolate eyes; they're staring at the light blue carpet. I tilt my head in confusion.

"Kitsune?" I call Gloria by her nickname.

She doesn't answer.

I take a few steps towards her. "Kitsune…?" Still she doesn't respond. "Gloria?!" I let out a harsh whisper as I shake her shoulders.

* * *

**+Gloria's POV+**

"Huh?" I blink back the tears that I didn't even know began to form. "Nan desu ka, Kitty-Cat-chan?" I stare clueless-ly at my younger, adopted, sister not knowing why she just shook me like that.

"So you're still with us?" Rebecca gently hits my head, making me blink with each pat.

"Hai…." I'm still confused.

"Good! Now c'mon," Rebecca grabs hold of my wrist and practically drags out of her ocean colored room. "Ookami, and that Yomi guy, already got a good amount a head of us." She looks back at me. "And we don't want there to be any bloodshed here." Oddly enough she smiles at that (at least I consider that to be odd).

"Yeah," I muster up a smile, closing my eyes.

"Hm?" Becky looks back at me with a raised eyebrow.

I dismiss what she 'said'. After all I can be an emotional wreck at certain times, and I don't enjoy being yelled at though I enjoy yelling.

After a few twists and turns that Rebecca makes, we reach Yomi and Mark. Mark looks down at us two with a raised eyebrow, but Rebecca and I just smile up at him.

_Yomi didn't seem to notice our absence. That's good. _

I sigh. _The last thing I need right now is a demon on my ass. _A few seconds later another blush goes across my face; releasing that, that thought sounded a bit pervy. _Note to self: hit Mark!! _

I blame the human wolf demon because he's… well he's Mark!! He's a bloody eight-teen year old man with two female friends! He just 'had' to teach us some things.  
But I secretly blame his parents. Remembering Mark's father makes my body tense and a shiver go up and down my spine, filled with fright.

"Gloria?" I hear Rebecca whisper.

I look down at her with curious, blinking eyes.

She sighs. "Let's get started."

"Nani?" I'm finally able to see that we're in the kitchen, and Mark isn't here.

"C'mon." Rebeccathrows a broom in my direction, to which I catch clumsily.

I gingerly rub the middle of my forehead, a spot were the broom's handle collided; a groan leaving passes my gritted teeth.

Once done with the pain on my head, I concentrate on the smell of the filthy kitchen. The strong smell makes my eyes water. It consist of rotting foods, aged beverages, mice dung, some kind of purple fuzz, soap scum, animal insides, and other gut wrenching stuff.

Rebecca wastes no time in sweeping the tan wooden floor. I soon join her in the tough sweeping, mostly just dirt dragged in by the numerous demons. There are few spots were there's dried on droppings left by the Makai mice, but we've decided that we'd wash the floors later because of that.

"Beck?" I ask.

"Hm?"

"What do we do after this? I kinda spaced out." I give Rebecca a sheepish grin, a bead of sweat running down the side of my face.

She lets out a sigh. "Hmmm. We still have to clean their rooms, do the laundry, make their meals, and basically be their moms." She shrugs her nearly bare shoulders, with a slight disgusted look on her face.

"Great!!" I flop my arms to my sides – bringing them up then they loudly hit my sides, but it's normallydulled by my street clothes. "I'm a fifteen year-old girl, dressed like this," I display my belly dancing outfit. "That has many 'children'. What does that tell you?" I playfully glare at Rebecca.

"You're a hussy." Becky replies with a smug look.

I lightly growl at her in the back of my throat, but soon laugh heartily. "If I'm a hussy, so are you." I give her my own smug look.

Rebecca's orbs well up like Siberian puppy eyes – the puppy-dog look – and points to herself. "But, I'm only fourteen!"

"And I be fifteen!" I say proudly, deliberately messing up my grammar.

Both of us lightly laugh and continue to work.

We sweep the dirt and surprises into a decent sized pile. Rebeccasweeps the stuff into a tin bucket, while I hold it in front of the dirt. Luckily, for her and me, she's nice enough that she doesn't 'miss' the bucket and hit my face.

Both of us team up against the mountain of dirty dishes. I wash the dishes with great force – trying to get the dried on food to come off, and the purple fuzz. Rebecca rinses, scraps off any scrapes I missed with her claws, and dries them.

Once that mission is done I clean out the cabinets (mostly because Rebecca can't reach them). Rebecca hands me the outsized plates and bowls, and I put them away. Then, she gives me the smaller plates to which I place on top of the larger plates – or in the bigger bowls. Both of us carefully put the sharp objects away; not wanting to get cut.

That task gets done faster.

I tie a clean piece of cloth around my mouth and nose, so the smell will be at least dulled. Grabbing the dated cleaning supplies I walk towards Becky, sidling the semi-full brown bucket down my arm. She has on a similar mask, cleaning supplies in one hand, and her other grips the cooler's knob.

I twirl the mop's handle in between my right hand's fingers and slam it down into my left hand – lightly saying 'ow' and my right eye twitches; at the slight sting of pain.

Rebecca quickly opens the air sealed shut door. Like an army on crack we are met with a wicked stench. On instinct our arms fly up to our mouths and noses.

"GAH!! What the hell?" My muffled yell sounds, my eyes watering; the smell is so strong.

"What on earth could make such a putrid smell?" Rebecca asks.

"Heck if I know."

"That was a rhetorical question, Gloria."

"Oh," my eyes widen with realization and I laugh nervously, while scratching the back of my neck. "I knew that!"

"Ah-huh, sure you did. Now let's get to work, the sooner we finish this the sooner we'll be done." With great courage Rebecca walks inside the cooler.

_Aw, man! _I whine to myself not wanting to do this… smelly task.

I let out a sigh and bravely step into the dark, damp, cold room.

* * *

**+Rebecca's POV+**

_-__ Aw, man! - _I hear Gloria think to herself.

_Dang! I have got to get a better gist of this mind reading stuff. _

I concentrate on cleaning the cooler; most of the stuff has to be taken out because it's old, _really_ old. The shelves don't go out of my reach but I do have trouble seeing the top.

I look over to my older female friend. _She doesn't seem to have any trouble. _Gloria isn't even standing on the balls of her feet, although she does have to tip her head a ways back to see what's in the rear.

"This is disgusting!" Gloria states.

"Yup." I agree with her. "I guess guys don't have the common sense to clean up after themselves."

"Hai, hai." From the corner of my eye I see Gloria nod in agreement.

Her childish behavior may be annoying to some, even I on certain days, but for the most part I end up laughing. She's a year older than me and Mark's four years older, yet I seem to be the one with the most sense in our little group – when we're not sugar high, then we're all just a bunch of crazy teens.

"GAH, damn-it all!!"

I quickly turn my head to Gloria, upon hearing her swear. She's using one of the cooler's shelves for support while she inspects her left foot.

_-__ Please let this just be purple fuzz! – _she yells to herself.

"C'mon let's go have a look in the kitchen, where the light is better." I reason. I let Gloria place her right hand on my shoulder – for balance – and she hops towards one of the large oak chairs. I walk towards the sink and wet a brown, red, and oragne washcloth while she sits down in the well kept chair.

"I'm not gonna grow anything am I?" Gloria looks worriedly at her purple, gooey, fuzzy shoe.

"If it didn't seep through, you should be fine." I hand her the wet multicolored washcloth.

"Arigatou," Gloria takes the rag, slips off her white shoe, and using the table next to her she roughly scrubs the bottom of her shoe.

I lightly laugh, seeing her funny/determined her expression and lean against the now clean counter. I don't want to suffer in the cleaning by myself.

I begin to feel several tugs in my heart. Looking at Gloria I see that she's not affected, or she's too busy to notice the feeling.

Soft whispers tell me to be in the main entrance area.

_But why? If this keeps on happening – the whole heart tug thing – can't it, at the very least, give me a specific reason? _I let out a stressed sigh.

"Alright!" Hearing Gloria's victorious yell; I look over at her. She places her clean shoe on her foot.

"Uh, Gloria." My saying her name falls on deaf ears.

"Gah!! Wet!" she yells once both of her feet touch the wooden floor. Quickly she brings her foot up again.

"I tried to warn you." I use my sing-song tone. I roll my blue eyes with a small smile on my lips hearing her lightly growl.

The tugging in my heart increases as I begin to hear shouts from the main entrance.

"What's going on?" Gloria asks.

I don't answer her question.

'_The Healer will give an arm….'_

_The healer? Kitsune? _I look towards the brown haired human kitsune. _Give an arm? What the heck does that mean? Will she clap, help someone with something? Wait!!_

My eyes widen with realization. _She has the Crystal of Healing, so does that mean she'll literately give an arm to someone? _

My eyes relax. _But how can that be?_

A pain filled yell breaks my concentration. Rushing towards the open door – next to Gloria – I look out to the main entry.

All the demons are circling someone.

"What do you think happened, Kitty-Cat-chan?"

I shrug my shoulders, ignoring her puzzled gaze.

The large group of demonic men are so close together that I can't see what they're huddling around.

"Hey!!" Gloria and I chorus. Someone makes me lose my footing and trip away from the open door. Gazing up, I see that Youko is holding Gloria's left wrist and is dragging her towards the parting men.

"Dang-it, what is it with people grabbing my wrists today, AND THE DRAGGING?!" she exclaims in frustration.

I hastily follow after them. But with Youko's long legs he takes longer strides than I do, so I'm a bit behind. Even Gloria is having a hard time keeping up with him.

Elbowing my way through the pack of demons; I begin to see the thing these male demons are around.

_It's that dark demon, the one that karate chopped me and Gloria in the neck! _I exclaim in my mind. Slowly my eyes widen seeing that his right arm is cut off, the clean cut stops just below where the shoulder begins. Black blood, shinning blue in the dim light, oozes out from the poorly wrapped wound creating an enlarging puddle; the demon seems to be in great amounts of pain. His sheet white hand grips what is left of his arm, his own blood staining his clawed fingers.

Youko throws Gloria down next to the dark demon; a small dirt cloud lifting in the air once she meets the ground. Gloria whips her head towards the strong silver fox with an angry look in her normally childish-kind eyes. But she soon withers into nothing and I can visibly see that she's terrified of him now.

"Fix him," Youko orders.

"Youko-sama, I don't mean to disrespect you, but I refuse to have a human fix me!" shouts the dark demon.

"Well this human doesn't want to fix you! ... Course it depends on what type of fix." Gloria mumbles the last part to herself, her shoulders hunched forward but I can see the knowing grin plastered on her lips. I shake my head in disapprove-ment; understand what she meant by saying 'fix'.

"Marcin," Youko addresses the demon with the missing arm. "Either you let this onna assist you, or be of no longer use to me."

Marcin's onyx eyes widen in surprise.

_-__If I don't let this ningen onna heal me I'll die for sure. But, how can a simple human give me an arm? Not to mention I'll never live it down by the guys. - _I hear Marcin debate with himself.

The demon lets out a frustrated growl and holds out what he has left of his right arm. Gloria looks at the shoulder, then up at Marcin, and back down at the shoulder.

"Don't just sit there like a slut! Fix this!!"

Despite the fact that I see Gloria's profile, I can clearly notice the surprised look on her face but that emotion is soon gone and is taken by a raging fire of hate and her pale hands form into tight fists.

Marcin simply raises an eyebrow at her behavior.

_I really hope that she won't do anything to drastic. _Over the nine years that we've been friends I can say that I'm not afraid of Gloria when she's mad. But I still keep my distance knowing that she wants some space and time to cool down.

Seeing that Gloria is beginning to calm down I let out a thankful sigh - but with Youko's hand on her nearly bare shoulder I don't think that she's really calming down. Slowly Youko takes his hand off her shoulder.

With an irritating huff she slowly begins unwrap Marcin's wound.

"What the hell do you think you're doing, ningen?" Marcin shouts.

"Unfortunately, helping you," Gloria darkly says. _-__ I just hope I know what I'm doing. - _

Somehow the blood has stopped releasing. I hear some of the demon's around me whispering on how could it happened.

The bandages fall into the puddle of blood, slowly becoming the same color.

Gloria gently places her hands on the demon's shoulder, slowly closing her indifferent eyes. Marcin's, deadly, orbs watch her hands; waiting for something to happen.

"Nani!?" a demon close by me shouts.

For what feels like the twentieth time today, my sky blue eyes widen.

Pure white, sparkling threads loop around the area where Marcin's arm would be; forming a semi-oval. Multiple thin strings of dark blue and black wrap around the mass of white, though they fail to dull the bright color. The dark strands sink into the white bundle.

The half oval intensifies and begins to take shape.

The semi-oval shrinks down to the form of a lean, muscular arm the dark lines now becoming very noticeable as the white threads begin to dull. The white slowly dissipates into nothing, soon after the black and dark blue threads evaporate.

"How the hell did she do that," shouts a different demon.

I release a breath I didn't know I was holding.

"Did you know your friend could do that?"

I jump at the sound of the rough, yet smooth, voice. Gazing up; I see the bat demon that showed Mark, Gloria, and I to Youko Kurama yesterday, Kuronue.

Kuronue moves his indigo eyes to the lower corner – his eyes meeting mine. "Well?"

"I know that she can heal minor cuts and bruises. But, I never knew that she could actually give someone a limb." I tell him.

"Hm," one corner of Kuronue's lips tugs up. "Interesting."

"Whoa, check it out! Not even a scar!" exclaims an unimportant demon. This catches my attention.

Marcin is now standing up with demons gawking at Gloria's handy work. They look over the arm, under it, and around it; noting that there's not even blemish. Gloria still sits where she was thrown: her legs tucked underneath her, hands placed on her lap, and her head down.

"You're welcome…." Gloria growls out.

Marcin looks down at her with a snort.

Bolting up, Gloria stomps pass me and into the kitchen.

* * *

**+Gloria's POV+**

_I can't believe I helped that bastard! He calls me a slut and what do I do? I FRICKEN' HELP THE GUY REGROW HIS FRICKEN' ARM!!! … AND HE DOESN'T EVEN GIVE THE SLIGHTEST THANKS!!! _

I take my rage out on a defenseless shelf. I'm lightly snarling while cleaning, my weak human arm muscles fully sized and tense.

Suddenly the layer breaks in half. Grumbling words under my breath I toss the shelf out into the clean kitchen.

"You are aware that we just cleaned that right?" I hear Rebecca.

"Yeah…"

"Kitsune, don't worry about what _he _said," I can tell that Rebecca is referring 'he' to Marcin. "He doesn't know you, and it was the demon's who picked this outfit out. Besides," I hear her going back to work. "Aren't you the who informed me that a demon's sense of smell is so acute that they can smell whether or not someone is a virgin? Or have you and Ookami finally realized your love for each other?" I can just hear the cat-like smirk forming on her lips.

My whole becomes tense and a hot blush runs from my neck to my hairline. "We're just friends, Rebecca, you should know that!!" I shout at her.

"Rebecca?" asks a voice to my left.

_Sheep! _I mind squeaks.

Cautiously I move my head towards the open door. There stands Youko number two, Kuronue on his right, and Yomi on Youko's left. All of which have their arms crossed over their chests.

I swallow a large lump in my throat.

"I thought her name was 'Kitty-Cat-chan'." Yomi voices with an arrogant look.

"Uhhh… well ya' see… ummm…." I move my eyes this way and that.

Mark, Rebecca, and I all voted that we'd use our demon nicknames when we work; thinking that it would be safer. But now…

"Go on," Kuronue smoothly instructions.

"I vote that if their excuse isn't good enough we torture them and slowly kill them." I hear that Yomi moved his sword an inch out of its sheath.

_Damn-it what are we going to do!?_

My heart begins to pound rapidly within my ribcage, my dark brown eyes sluggishly widens, I can feel a thin layer of sweat forming on my hands, the inside of my neck becomes desert dry, and I can feel what little coloring I have on my face drip away. Gazing over to Rebecca I see that she lost the color of her slightly tan skin; she seems be to in poorer condition than me. Very slowly her body sways but quickly regains its posture.

"Ano..." Looking back up at Youko number two's cold golden eyes my heart stops beating. Dark spots with bright thin outer colors blink in front of my big eyes.

"You were lying all this time about your names?" he unemotionally asks.

My heart seems to shrink when he asks that; quickly I look away hoping that my eyes didn't give away anything important.

_We're dead, we're dead, we're dead, we're dead! And it's all my fault!!! _Again my heart begins to thrash within its prison.

Hours seem to pass by.

"Leave them be." Youko number two orders. The said kitsune youkai turns on his heel and walks out of the kitchen avoiding the broken wood. Kuronue following shortly afterwards.

"What-! How-! Why-! When-!" Yomi looks back and forth. With an enraged scowl Yomi is out of the kitchen.

I let out a shaky breath. Wiping my hands on my white skirt I look over to Becky. The coloring is coming back to her body and I can feel her heart going back to normal.

"Did we just survive lying to three powerful demons?" I ask astonished that we're still living.

"I hope we did," Becky responds. "Or Heaven smells a lot like rotten foods and male laziness, and it's really cold."

"You're right It is!" I wrap my arms around myself.

Both of us laugh wholeheartedly and quickly get out of the cooler; we've wasted enough of its freezing air. After shutting it off, we take the broken wood near the entrance - not knowing if we're allowed fully outside.

Once back in the clean kitchen I grab a piece of paper, a quill, and a small bottle of ink. I place them on a drier part of the kitchen table and sitting down in the sleek chair I look to Rebecca, who's sitting beside me.

"What are we going to need?" I ask wondering what we'll need for the demonic men. Rebecca closes her eyes and begins to tell me what we'll need in the very near future, while I write them down rapidly.

* * *

**+In a village miles away+**

A decent sized village begins to settle down for the night. Stores are closing down, mothers are gathering their children to take them home, fathers are running after the rebelling kids. Seemingly in secret women barely dressed in anything sit outside bars, nocturnal demons walk about with fanged grins and long proud steps, and loud shouts and cheers sound inside the taverns.

One inn, by the name of Lucky Poison, seems to be the loudest.

Dimly lit candles fail to hide demon women taking demon men into back rooms or upstairs. The lower halves of the place are cold gray stone. The upper portions have a cork feeling to it with small tacks pinning aged papers with decorative writing scribbled on them. Dark wood separates the two and the same wood runs up to the ceiling, supporting the underground adultery. The bar itself lights up with different dark and warm colors due to the bottles of mind-numbing drinks. The bartender has sandy color hair, sun kissed skin, evergreen peaceful eyes, soft facial features, large rough hands, and small dog ears on top of his head. His eyes scan the area watching out for anyone that seems to be a threat to this place.

In one corner, far away from the madness, a young man sits his oddly looking, unemotional eyes gazing into his beer's white foam. His back is to the people. One of his arms behind him; slung over the old wooden chair.

"Ya' know," sounds a voice behind him. "Me be thinkin' that we gets a new meetin' place."

"Oh?" sounds the waiting demon.

"Yea', 'cause me just got jumped by some worthless, but totally temptin', whores." The new male demon sighs and sits by his seemingly friend. "So what 'cha want ta know?" The demon takes a chug of his alcoholic drink sitting back in his own chair crossing his panted legs, his violet bangs brushing across his closed eyes. His tanned back muscles twitch at the action, having some of the women hypnotized by them.

"What's new?"

"Hm?" the demon wipes away his foamy mustache. "Me have been hearin' 'bout some ningens that smell of the S class."

The demon looks at his friend, interest flashing to his unemotional eyes. "Really now?" The interested demon shows his abnormal white fangs.

"Yup, yup! There's onethat-" The rude demonis interrupted by his own burp. "That survived a go with that creepy crow demon. Uhhh, me thinks his name is Karasu." Again the bad-mannered demon drinks down his cold beverage.

"How so?" asks the interested demon, folding his fingers together and demonically gazing at his associate.

"Me dunno." The demon shrugs his naked shoulders. "It might have to do with their scent. Still," the male sticks out his tongue and shakes the wet copper cup by its handle, a small drop of yellow substance drops on his pink digit. "Odd if ya's think 'bout it."

"This is most interesting." The now fully intrigued demon lets out a dark chuckle. His facial features very happy.

* * *

**Notes: **Okay, a few notes should clear up any confusion.

1) I'm calling Youko 'Youko numer two' because Gloria doesn't know that they're the same.

2) I've looked on photobucket and I couldn't find a good enough picture to see what eye color he had. Most of them were after he got blind. I did find one but it was blurry.

3) Yes, the rude demon was only wearing pants.

4) Rebecca doesn't REALLY have claws, they're just freakishly long.

5) No, Lucky Poison doesn't _really_ sell poison - at least the kind that can kill you.

**Again, let me know what song you think fits best for this story, and my others if you have read them. Ja ne!!**


	10. Foreign Contact & a Taste of Freedom

**Hey, everybody!!! *waves* Long time no see, right? Hummm... I wonder how long its been since I've updated this story. *shrugs* ^-^ I've updated now so all is right, right? As we all know I do NOT own Youko, Kuronue, and Yomi (though I would really like to own Youko and Kuronue...). I do, however, own Gloria, Rebecca (kinda), Mark, Marcin, and three other characters that will come in the next chapter. I, also, own the plot: the Heart Crystals and such.**

**The only KEY you'll need is:  
_"Blah, blah, blah" = _**talking telepathically

**And... WOO-HOO~!!!!! *throws canfetti in the air* I've made to Ch. 10 before one of my friends left for Canada this summer!!!!! *hands the person a peanut butter brownie (you know who you are), to the person* I hope you have a wonderfully trip to Canada~!! ^0^**

**Youko: *shakes head, mubbles* And to think you were crying that everyone is going to leave you this summer. *sighs* 0.o**

**Me: *stuffed another brownie in his face* Shut-it!  
ANYWAY! Please enjoy this chapter and leave a review.**

**Ch. 10: Foreign Contact and a Taste of Freedom**

"Man, I'm beat!" I exclaim as I fall onto my dark quilted bed.

"I'm with ya' there!" Rebecca falls down next to me.

Having to spend long, demanding hours wiped both of us out. I can't even say what the easiest task was.

Cleaning the kitchen was malodorous, their rooms stunk to high Heaven, their laundry was stiff, and having to put up with the wolf whistles was Hell.

After the kitchen was spotless, we decided to clean their rooms. _Mark's_ room is better; at least in his room I can see the floor. Yomi's and Marcin's were the worst; the others' were still dirty but seemingly cleaner than Yomi and Marcin. I'm just glad that Youko number two and Kuronue's room were near spotless.

We had to crack their clothing in the middle just so they could fit in our baskets. Rebecca, of course, led us the way to the dated cleaning room. We had to make several trips from there to the demons' bedrooms. Washing the white, and Kuronue's black, clothing was rather hard – without a washer and dryer from the Human World.

Throughout the entire day Rebecca and I received wolf whistles. Ugh! I thought demons thought that humans were ugly!

I roll over on to my back and stretch my limbs, enjoying the cracking sounds popping from the cart ledge. I let out a relax sigh and fold my arms behind my head.

But quickly remembering what I'm wearing; I go into a more modest position. Slowly closing my chocolate orbs a soft smile goes across my pink lips.

A transparent image of my sweet grandmother flashes through my closed eyes; a light frown replaces my smile. Grammy's silver hair in a messy tight bun shines with any type of light. Her warm dark chocolate eyes shows many years of kindness and great strength. Her brilliant smile brought aging lines around her lips and under her eyes. Her compassionate elderly voice telling me wise and old sayings. Grammy's aged hands cooking my meals, running across my forehead when I was deadly sick, her fingers brushing across the side of my face and her hand holding mine as she took me into her log cabin home.

The thoughtful mature woman was so humane to take me in, and a year later adopted Rebecca. Grammy might as well have adopted Mark, too. I shall never forget what she has done for all of us.

Tears form in the corners of my closed orbs. I feel them run down my temples, hiding into my dark brown hair.

_Grammy… Granny... Gran-Gran…. _I bite down on my lower lip.

Quickly I jump off my bed and walk towards my wardrobe. Pulling out one of the draws I take out a chairo kosode. "Beck, I'm going to-"

I stop myself once I hear a door slightly slam. "Hm," I look over my shoulder curiously, but seeing the bathroom door is shut tight I let out an irritated grumble. Placing the feudal clothing over my arm I sit near the locked door in a black cushion chair, waiting for Rebecca to be done with her bathing time.

Looking over my room I see that it has different shades of brown; matching my eyes perfectly. I have the basics: a bed, closet, vanity, two mirrors (body length and one posted on the wall with the vanity), lounge chairs, a bookcase, candles for lighting, and doors.

_Hey, who needs windows when you're underground? Not me, that's for sure. _

Though I joke with myself within the depths of my mind, can't help but worry about Grammy. All three of us left without a word… she might think something bad has happened to us!

I bring my knees up to my chest, fold my arms around them, and stare absently at the dark carpeted floor. A heavy sigh leaves past my lips.

Another thing: today after lunch I began to feel sharp, short stabs on my heart. I still do, but now the feeling is more intense. After everything that happened in the past few days, you think that I'd be more cautious and be a nervous for my friends.

No. My friends, Mark and Rebecca, are far stronger than me, both physically and emotionally. It doesn't matter if they have their crystals they're still stronger than I.

I gently close my eyes. "They're my sanity…" I quietly say.

"G-Gl-ow…" a ragged, hoarse whisper sounds from my doorway.

With wide eyes I stare at my room's entryway, horror struck.

"Mark!" I scream out and jump out of my bed. Mark's body hits the carpeted floor with a splattering 'thud'. "Mark!! Mark?!" I gently move him onto his back and gingerly shake his shoulders; hoping this would wake him up. I can feel tears forming in my eyes.

A white body towel is pressing down on Mark abdomen.

"Huh?" I look over the towel, seeing it turn to pink then slowly change into a dark red. Following up the sun kissed arms I see that the person with the towel is Rebecca. She's trying to stop the blood from pouring out of the major wound.

Becky's sharp blue eyes pierce through mine with a questioning look in their depths.

"Aren't you going to help," she asks. "There's only so much I can do."

"Oh," my eyes widen. "Right!"

I close my eyes and place my hands on his bloody shirt.

**+Mark's POV+**

_Damn, those demons. It's their fault that I'm like this._

I grip the dirt wall and wince. My stomach is killing me! My other fingers twitch at the feeling of the wound. Warm blood seeps through my fingers.

I have to close my left eye due to the head wound I received, so the blood won't go into my eye.

"Fuck," my knees give out, bruising them further. I grit my teeth so I don't swear further. I dig my fingers into the wall. Opening my mouth and quickly closing it I focus on the new pain on my lower lip.

Slowly my better emerald eye opens up. _Just a few more steps, _I think to myself.

My blood-spattered leg rises up, into a kneeling position, and I slowly get myself up. I haven't felt this way for eleven years.

My blood continues to pour out. I'm lucky that I didn't break any bones, or this will be a even more of a Hellish nightmare.

Limping, I walk to Glow's room – the brown wooden door with the black hinges. Pulling my hand off the dirt wall I nearly slam it down on the closed door.

"Glow…" I whine out like a pathetic puppy. I place my forehead against the damn wooden thing. Placing most of my weight on the door; I use the hand that's not on my stomach to open the door.

I rapidly catch myself, from collapsing on the brown carpet.

"G-Gl-ow…"

I hear her scream my name as I fall to the ground and everything goes black.

I can hear Glow yelling my name. I can sense her turn me onto my back and shaking me, all the while calling to me. I can't help but inwardly smile.

I'm aware of something warm cover my belly and then that thing presses down hard. Through the material I can feel Becky's tiny hands.

"Aren't you going to help," Becky asks. "There's only so much I can do."

"Oh," Glow must have been in one of her dazes. "Right!"

I feel Glow's hands press down on my chest. I can't help but smile; even through the blood on my torso the feeling of her soft hands is unmistakable.

The black behind my closed eyes looses a shade of darkness and I get a funny, warm sensation all over my body.

It feels like butterfly kisses all over my wounds, even the minor ones. My belly is being over taken by the light, fluttering kisses. My head wound has sensations like there are fingers lightly caressing over it, too. All of my fresh wounds feel like feathers, light things are dancing over them.

_This feels nice. _I state to myself, a smile on my lips.

Through my closed eyes I see multiple white threads braiding with dark green ones. They all dissolve like water; mixing with one another. The dark green waters over takes the white. I can smell freshly cut grass, roses, and jasmine.

Then everything goes black and the smells die.

Fluttering my eyes open I see the dark green ceiling of my room. I blink several times to process the color.

"Nani," I ask myself.

I hear a light, tired groan. Turning my head I see Gloria sleeping on a dark wooden chair, her head occasionally bobbing up and down. Drops of water drip from the tips of her wet hair. Her arms are crossed over her cover chest, her left – long – leg is crossed over her right, and light snores escape her pale throat.

I can't help but smile. I feel my green eyes soften at her cute position.

Slowly I sit up, expecting to feel hot pain rush through me, closing my eyes tightly. When I don't feel the pain I open my eyes, filled with confusion.

Ripping the covers off, I see that I'm completely healed.

"Nani," I ask myself.

"_My Heart Crystal is The Crystal of Healing." _Gloria's voice rings through my head.

"Right…" I sigh out. I look over to the young woman who I've grown up with.

Shifting on the bed; my feet meet the dark green, shaggy carpet. I lean forward – towards Glow – and place a rough hand on her shoulder. Gently I shake her shoulder while whispering her nickname, Glow.

Glow makes a noise, similar to a pig; I choke down a laugh.

"Glow…" I whisper out. "Glow…."

Gloria groans. Her right hand goes underneath her right, closed eye and rubs. Her left hand does the same with her left eye.

"Nan desu ka, Ookami?" she groans out.

She uncrosses her legs and her long dark brown hair falls over her shoulders. She's still rubbing underneath her eyes, with a tired expression on her face. She resembles so damn close to a little kid.

I laugh lightly at her. "Why are you sleeping in my room?" I lean in closer; my arms on my legs.

"I fell asleep?" she asks.

"Hai."

"Oh," Glow lets out a beastly yawn. "Ya she 'ark, ya 'ot wrealy 'urt 'nd…" Glow tries to speak through her yawn.

"I didn't understand a word of that." I yawn after said that; under the yawning curse. Damn.

Stretching her stiff limbs; Gloria lets out another groan, though with a happy smile on her face. "Oh!" Realization springs on her face. "You collapsed on my floor and me and Becky healed you!" she gives a cheesy grin.

I give her a smirk. "You did most of the work."

She stands up and her fist lightly hits the top of my head, with the other on her hip. "How would you know? You don't have The Crystal of Knowing!" her fists are placed on her brown clothed hips; her facial features have an angry pout on them.

"True. But you did say that you have power over The Crystal of Healing, right?"

I can see a visible blush go cross her nose. "Right."

"Exactly, I'm not _that_ forgetful!" I cross my arms over my chest and playfully glare at her.

"I know…" she shakes her head; some of the strands stick to her face. Looking down at me she smiles. "Why don't you go take a bath? Kitty-Cat-chan and I made sure to leave plenty of hot water."

I sniff my right armpit.

"Why, I don't smell anything."

"Well I do!" Glow grabs my elbow and drags me towards the middle door – it leading to the bathroom. She throws the bath's door open and then she tosses me in.

"Now wash up, and go to bed!" with that said and done; she slams the door.

I chuckle lightly while shaking my head.

I get out of my dark green and bloody clothing. They hit the ground, barely making a sound.

Sitting in the steaming green water inside the tub, I look around the bathroom.

The walls are a shade of white, but not really pure white – not like the white saw before. The inside of the tub, flooring, doors, cabinets, towels, toilet, and the curtain that surrounds the in-ground tub are all an off -white color.

There's yellow trimming around the mirror above the sink and the cabinets, also the trimming is around the underground tub. The sink, faucet, rods, and basically every metal are the color gold.

The numerous lit white candles seem to act as mood lighting; the sweet smell of vanilla makes my face scrunch up a bit.

_Girly smell. _

It smells nice, but reminds too much of Glow's home.

I sigh quietly; I sink myself lower in the heated water. Breathing out I create little bubbles from my mouth.

**+Gloria's POV+**

I fall down onto Mark's green quilt, sleepily exhausted.

Before Ookami woke me up I was in a peaceful sleep. I was having a dream of me, Granny, Becky, and Mark; back in the days when we were young. But it was just a mish-mash of happy memories. It was filled with laughter, smiles, sunny days, and fresh baked sugary stuff.

I smile into the blanket. Turning my head I let out a sigh – my eyes still closed.

Sensing that I'm not alone in the room anymore; I open my eyes half way. But they quickly bulge out of their sockets, seeing Mark's naked back – a body towel covers his lower half. Though it's not that his upper half is bare it's his scar.

The scar is ragged, long, and is a horrid memory. It starts from his right shoulder and ends on his left hip. I chew on my lower lip; debating on whether or not I should volunteer to heal his scar.

Tears fill my eyes in frustration.

He told me that he wants to keep it… but his 'father' gave that to him – in a drunken state. His 'mother' was away on 'business' trips and when she was around she did nothing. His 'parents' never cared for him. Would he really want to keep such bad memories with him?

"Do you wanna see my ass, Glow?" hearing his Mark's voice; I blink my eyes.

His green eyes stare into my brown ones. A black brow is arch, his lips are in a light smirk, his aged pajamas hang over his right arm, and amusement is on his face.

I quickly bury my face within the bed's covering. "No," is my muffled reply.

I can just make out the sound of Mark's light laughter, the towel dropping, and him putting on his nightly attire.

The bed sinks on my left, signaling that Mark is sitting on it. His large hand tangles itself in my drying hair; he slowly combs my brown tresses. A gentle smile goes across my lips.

This is comforting. But the question still nags in my mind. 'Does Mark still want his scar?'

I lift myself up on my calves, shake Mark's comforting hand away, pat my hair down, and look up at the human wolf. I can feel my eyes become moist with tears. I bite the inside of my lower lip; not wanting it to quiver.

Mark tilts his head in confusion. "Nani?" he asks. "Did I do something wrong… again?"

I shake my head slowly, little whimpers escaping me.

Mark captures my chin with his left hand, and he uses his right thumb to wipe underneath my damped eyes; a few of them slide down onto his thumb. "What is it that's making you cry, Gloria?"

"D-o you w-w-want," it's hard for me to say due to the tightness of my throat. I squeeze my hands into fists. With a shaky breath I finish my sentence. "Do you want to keep your scar?"

Mark's emerald green eyes widen briefly, but they soon relax again. A grin goes across his face. "Is that what's been bothering you?"

I nod my head, moving my teeth so they're no longer holding the inside of my lip. I look down at my lap.

A controlled laugh from Mark makes me look up in surprise. He's biting his thumb to control his laughter, though some escape.

Mark get's his amusement under control and his rough hand ruffles my hair; moving my head slightly. "Didn't we talk about this before? I told you I want to keep it."

"But, why," My head shoots up and I stare at him.

Mark chuckles and taps the tip of my nose. "Because, when I become a father I don't want to be like that bastard." His index finger lingers on my nose. "Do you get it now?" his eyes are gentle.

"Uh-huh," a smile goes across my face as I nod my head. Silly me to forget something like that.

I jump off the bed and quickly go under the blankets. I wrap my arms around the large dark green pillow and let out a blissful sigh.

"Nani," Mark asks, again. "You don't want to sleep in your own room?" I can sense his eyes boring into the back of my head.

"No," I answer him.

"Why not," The bed shifts again.

Moving my head, showing my profile, I gaze up at Mark. He's lying on his side with his hand propping his head up, his face holds great amusement.

"'Cause my room makes me feel like I'm in a giant mud hole." I say with distaste.

"So you want to sleep with me?" Even though Mark asks that, he still gets underneath the covers.

"Yeah, cause if I sleep with Becky it's just gonna be weird."

Mark lets out a little laugh and scratches his neck. "Yeah weird," a blush goes across his face.

I tilt my head in confusion. I shrug my shoulders, the best to my laying abilities, and close my eyes waiting for the sleep to come.

**+Next Morning+**

"This is ridiculous!" Rebecca exclaims. She throws a white top into the wooden basket. "Didn't we clean this guy's room yesterday?"

"Yup. … How did he mess it up so fast?" I look over at Becky, from the other side of the filthy room.

She shakes her head, strands of her light brown hair hitting her face. "I don't WANT to know."

"Ditto," I pick out a white shoe and hold it at arm's length, my face scrunched up in disgust at the nasty smell. I side throw it into the basket, along with the other pair.

"Kitty-Cat-chan, would you rather clean AND stay in Yomi's room or in Marcin's room for an entire day?" I ask out of nowhere. Standing up with Yomi's dirty clothing in my arms I look over towards Rebecca. Her light blue eyes gaze up at the ceiling – the ONLY thing clean in this room.

"Humm…. I would have to say…" Becky drags on. "Yomi, why, I have no idea," she lets out a light laugh, I soon join her.

Walking over to the mountain of, filthy, clothing lying in the wicker basket; I drop Yomi's disgusting clothing.

"What about you?" Rebecca asks. "Yomi's room or Marcin's, same scenario,"

The right corner of my mouth rises up and my face gains a confused expression. "Eh…" I blink rapidly. "Uhhh… Yomi's," I say unsure of my own answer.

Rebecca nods her head and grabs one of the filled baskets. I grab the other and place it on my right hip; my left arm free for usage.

The two of us walk out of Yomi's bare room, and towards the laundry room. The both of us just talking randomly, but become silent as we see a passing demon.

_I know that they hear us before we see them, but we're still adjusting to this servant thing. Not to mention that talking in front of odd, unknown males is uncomfortable to us. _I sigh._ Not to mention these guys are demons._

Once we enter the cleaning room both of us dump the clothes simultaneously on the floor. Relishing the light weight of the basket I twirl it in the air and catch it before it hits the light blue, polished floor.

Becky laughs and we soon are engrossed in a twirling basket competition. The baskets twirl horizontally and vertically, and diagonally. We do this until we realize that we've got to go back to work.

"Oh, this would be so much more fun if we weren't serving under demons." Kitty-Cat-chan sighs out.

"I'm with ya' there." I agree.

Rebecca slowly raises her head, her light blue eyes wide. "I _knew_ you would say that!"

I fake a surprised gasp. "Really!"

I gently smile at my youngest friend.

The two of us begin to walk towards the next bedroom.

_I'm glad that Becky is coming back to her normal self._

I look down at the light haired brunette from the corner of my eye.

_Once we got here her personality did a complete 180 degree flip! I thought it had to do with her finding out that she has The Crystal of Knowing, but then I thought 'she had it along so…'. But now she's coming back to us; I'm glad. If she were to be all freaky and knowy all the time, that would get real creepy… and annoying._

A small sigh escapes my lips at the thought of Rebecca being like that day after day. "It's bad enough that we're in Makai." I say under my breath.

"What was that?" Becky's voice snaps me back to reality.

Dropping my basket I frantically wave my hands in front of me, my pale face gaining heat. "N-Nothing," I give her a nervous smile.

She in turn gives me a sly, cat-like, grin. She brings right hand up to my face and wiggles her fingers. "You do realize that I can just enter your mind and see what you thought."

"Gah!! Stay out of my head!" my arms come across my head, hoping that this would protect Becky from reading my mind.

Rebecca lightly laughs at my immaturity. "I would never do that." Then she mumbles something I didn't hear.

"Nani?"

"Nothing," she lightly shakes her head. "Let's go."

"KAY~!" I sing like a small child.

I pick up my fallen basket and walk up to the smallest person in my little group.

_As long as we have each other, I'm positive that nothing can stop us!_ I reassure myself.

The two of us continue to talk about our lives in Ningenkai, our memories that taken place while we were in the human world. Rebecca and I laugh once we remember the countless times Grandma kicked Mark out… literally.

Rebecca suddenly stops in her tracks; I stop as well, a few steps ahead, wondering why she stopped so suddenly.

"Kitty-Cat-chan," I ask.

Her bright blue eyes widen, she body begins to shake.

"Beck?" my voice has a hint of panic; not use to this from her.

The basket she has been carrying drops to the ground, her trembling increases slightly and her breathing comes out in gasps.

"REBECCA," I throw my basket to the ground, grip onto her shoulders, and shake her; trying to release her from this state. Rebecca blinks several times, before her eyes lose their hypnotic stare. Her breathing slowly comes back to normal.

Dropping my head, I release a breath and take deep breathes; wanting my heart rate to go down.

"Gloria," I look up at the confused cat. "You okay?"

_Am I okay, am I okay!? _My mind yells. I subconsciously growl and tighten my grip on her shoulders.

I let out a sick laugh and shake my head. "I should be asking you that, Kitty-Cat." I straighten myself.

"Well I'm fine," she says.

I let go of her shoulders and pick up my wicker basket. "Ditto," I tell her, turning on my heel.

"Kitsune, wait!"

"C'mon lets go before-" I walk forward – still looking at Rebecca's out reached hand – but stop at the sudden pain in my gut. I immediately drop the bag and my hands fly to my stomach. Slowly I go to my knees; my peripheral sees that my hands are glittering white.

_This feels like butterfly kisses. _I begin to remember, back when I was a small kid, that Grammy would tell me to give her butterfly kisses, when she tucked me in at night. (Butterfly kisses are your eyelashes moving rapidly, but softly on a cheekbone.)

I sense Becky is by my side. She gingerly places her hand on my dressed shoulder.

While removing my hands I follow the white pants up, my heartbeat slowly increasing as I continue up.

Slip on white shoes, loose white pants, and a white tunic top loosely tied closed. I stop looking once I see two golden, emotionless, orbs. Swallowing the lump in my throat I wave bashfully up at him.

_We get caught that we're not doing our chores…. _I finish my sentence.

"Okay, time for us to do our chores!" Rebecca grips my wrist and drags me away – I am fortunate enough that I got the basket in time – past Youko number two and Kuronue.

**+Fast Forward+**

I give a tired sigh while scrubbing the filthy off-white plate. To my right is a sleepy Rebecca, who's drying my wet dishes, and to my left is Mount Dirty Dishes.

Large circular dishes pile at the bottom or leaning on the sides, utensils go back and forth on the edges of plates, and glass bowls are higher up. Glasses and mugs are within the bowls, the slender glasses are in the rounder mugs. On top of them is a bowl; creating a pattern on its way up.

I grab a silver fork, sink it within the hot soapy water, and wash it with the wet rag. With a sigh I hand it over to Rebecca. Grabbing a circular crystal white plate with pearls around it, with blue opals in the middle of each, I repeat the process of washing it. My upper arm doesn't leave my side as I hand the decorated plate over to Rebecca.

Reaching up, just out of my wingspan, I grip onto a dirty glass bowl. Looking inside it I see the gravy is smeared all around it, bits of meat are here and there, and the smell is still fresh inside it.

"Beck," I ask.

"Hm,"

Hearing her respond I continue. "If these guys can afford such fancy plates and such, why can't they get a castle?" As I'm cleaning the bowl I look over at Becky. Her gaze is upward, staring at the dirt ceiling. Her lips push together moving from side to side – thinking.

"Umm....they have gambling issues?" she says uncertainly. "They obviously don't know what to spend their money on if they can get all of this and not a castle...." she smiles in my direction happy with her answer. I smile in her way, but slowly divert my attention to the white soap.

_Gambling and stealing.… _I glare at nothing. _Two things I absolutely despise. _My grip tightens on the washcloth.

My heart unexpectedly pounds against my sternum; I drop the rag and grip the said area. My face twists, sweat slowly gathers on my forehead, and my limbs feel like they're on fire and numb. _Last time I felt this, was when-_

"Hai, Youko-san," I hear Rebecca's voice through the ringing sound in my ears.

"You, get out." I straighten myself, wipe my forehead with my clothed arm, and look over my right shoulder. Youko number two stands in the doorway emotionlessly. "The other human needs help."

_That's my cue! _I think to myself. I walk towards the door, worrying on how Mark's wounds might be.

The tip of my slip on shoe is just barely out of the open door frame. A long, lean arm suddenly comes into my line of view and slams on the other side of the door's frame. Following the arm to the owner I meet Youko, number two's, golden eyes.

"I didn't say you could leave." He says.

My eyes briefly widen. "But she can't-" I flinch seeing a dangerous fire in Youko number two's eyes; I don't finish my sentence. Dropping my head I gaze at my shoes and the ground; a shadow falls over my eyes.

I can hear Rebecca hesitantly walk past us.

**"_Will you be okay, Gloria?" _**Her voice enters my mind.

**"**_**Yeah, don't worry."** _I can feel a small smirk come to my lips. _**"I can't die so easily."**_

Rebecca doesn't answer me. As she walks by I can sense the resentment of her having to leave me here, with the kitsune.

My gut tells me to step back a few; I do. Standing in the middle of the clean kitchen I refuse to look at the silver human man fox. My body tenses as I hear his soft footsteps. I see his white and silver tail a few times in my front and side view. Youko is circling me, like I'm some kind of prey.

I raise my head up half way, my eyes slightly visible through my feathery bangs. I get more annoyed as he continues his spinning around me; I bit my lower lip and clench my fists. Hearing him sniff the air around me makes me cringe. Bringing my head fully up I glare at the silver fox man.

I begin to turn myself the same way he's going. "Why are you circling me like this?" I place my hands on my hips.

Youko number two chuckles with an amused expression on his face. His golden eyes gaze into my brown ones. "Just curious as to how a ningen can smell so powerful, but look so fragile."

"Curiosity killed the cat." I retort.

He chuckles again and steps closer to me. He bends his upper half, so close that our noses are nearly touching; a dark blush runs up to my hairline and my heart rate doubles. "As you can see," his thumb and index finger bring my chin upwards. "I am no cat." His golden orbs are filling with amusement and his silver kitsune ears wiggle.

_What do I do, what do I do?! _I search my mind for all the possibilities to get out of this predicament. I find none.

"KITSUNE-CHAN!!" My redden face automatically disappears; hearing the urgency in Becky's voice.

I dash out of the kitchen and to where I heard Rebecca's yell. I run blindly down the mud halls – lit with dim, multiple candles. The sites go by of blurs of dark brown and, briefly, colored; due to the tapestries and paintings.

**"_We're in my room."_** Becky's voice echoes throughout my head. I shake my head at the odd sensation, but continue my way down to Becky's bedroom.

Coming closer and closer to Becky's door my speed increases to the slightest bit; I'm not a fast runner.

"What's wrong," I yell, after I slammed the door open. "Nani?" I stare flabbergasted at the sight before me. Mark's right arm is in a make-shift sling, his head is bandaged, both of his legs and his torso cut up, and he has a cotton eye-patch over his left eye. "Anno…?"

"I did the best I could." Rebecca tells me. She rubs the back of her neck with a sheepish grin on her lips.

I laugh lightly and walk up to Becky. My arms wrap around her neck and I hug gently. "Thank you." I whisper.

Her arms encircle around my waist. "No problem."

"Hello?!" the sudden yell makes me jump out of my skin and way from the family-friend hug. Mark waves his good, but badly bruised, arm in the air. "I'm hurting here!" Fake, white tears stream down his face from his large green puppy green eyes.

I laugh at his expression, but walk over to him nonetheless. Couching down to his level I gingerly place my hands on his bleeding chest. I close my eyes and get a picture of Mark's body in my mind.

Having him as a friend nearly my entire life I know what he looks like, and going to the local beach so many times I know what his chest and back look like.

I keep the picture of Ookami in my head, remembering to keep the scar on his back there. I inwardly flush at my chosen picture of him; but it is the only one where I've got a good visual of his upper torso and legs.

_We were at the local beach, with me being a sour puss as usually. I sat underneath the large white and red umbrella, with my knees to my chest and my arms wrapped around them, sitting on a huge light green towel. The lower part of my face hid behind my arms, while my brows knitted together and my eyes glared at the ocean and sand._

"_I hate the beach," I mumbled to myself, sniffling. Kitty-Cat-chan and Gran-Gran had gone to walk along the beach's shoreline; leaving me to watch Mark play volleyball with some, unknown, guys from school._

"_Glow-chan, watch out!!"_

_Without moving my face I looked up. My brown eyes instantly widened as I saw the white ball heading towards me. I was too scared to move so I just screwed my eyes shut. The semi hard ball hit my head and bounced off, I grunted in pain._

Why does this keep happening to me? _My mind whined, as I rubbed the bump on my head._

"_You okay, Glow?"_

_I let out a startled scream at the close contact of Mark, on the side of my face. His emerald green eyes blinked several times, but soon he let out an amused laugh._

_I pressed my lips together. "I'm glad that my pain amuses you, Ookami." Getting the sensation of something running out of my nose; I sniffle._

_Mark wiped the corners of his closed eyes. "G-Gomen ne, Gloria, but your expression was priceless!"_

"_Fujiwara__," Ookami and I looked toward the two teams, as we heard someone call Mark's last name, all the players seemed aggravated. The guy that shouted – I forget his name – had his hand cupped around his mouth. "Stop flirting with the middle school-er and get over here! We got a game to finish!" On closer inspection I saw that it was wrist bands versus non-wrist bands, the man that shouted was a wrist band, Ookami was not. _

_Ookami turned to face me with a friendly smile. "Excuse me, Glow," – his hands tightened on the ball, that he got – "I have to go talk to him." Mark jerked his head toward the opposing teammate… with a blush on his face?_

_I nodded my head with a blank expression, sniffling. Mark bolted up and ran toward the young man; accidently kicking sand on my towel. My face scrunched up and I tried, fruitlessly, to brush off the sand. I didn't stand for I didn't like the sun there._

_I sighed and laid in the shade of the umbrella, with a sniffle._

_What felt like hours later, Rebecca and Granny showed up. Rebecca sat beside me, in her dark blue bathing suit, her light brown hair hid her bare back, both of us just talked. The throbbing pain I had left long ago._

_...._

_The sun had begun to set. Granny, Becky, and I had begun to pack our belongings but stopped to see the breathtaking sunset. The sky was painted with dark reds, oranges, yellow, purples, bits of pink, and some of the stars are becoming visible. The sun, itself, seemed to be a giant fruit… maybe an orange._

"_Mark, it's time to go!" Granny shouted._

_I looked toward the shoreline and lightly blushed. Mark came running out of the, nasty, saltwater with a large smile on his face. His right eye was closed as he rubbed the water from his eye. He must've realized that the sky was painted beautifully. He twisted torso and looked up at the sky, a gentle smile on his face._

I open my eyes and pull my hands away, placing them on my lap. I only see blood, no scratches or gashes or anything of the sort. Mark is unraveling his head, stretching his right arm out of the sling, twisting his ankles and whatnot.

Rebecca walks behind him and stares at his back. I raise my eyes up her in question. She looks down at me, smiles, and gives me a thumb up. I inwardly sigh; now knowing that his scar is still there.

I stand up and place my hands on my, clothed, hips. "What happened to you?"

Mark doesn't leave his spot from the floor as he scratches the tip of his nose. He laughs nervously. "Did I ever tell you guys that I'm their target practice…?"

It takes a few seconds for the words to process in my mind. "NANI," Rebecca and I both shout, so strong that the decorations seem to shake. I feel the vein in my forehead, right hand, and neck bulge out from my anger.

"How the hell could they use you like!? This is despicable!!" Rebecca and I shout simultaneously, fire coming out of our mouths.

Mark blinks at the strange sight before, but joyously laughs.

Beck and I stop upon hearing his loud laughter. "Nan desu ka?" we look at each other flabbergasted and shrug at his random laughing fit.

Ookami grips onto his stomach and falls onto his back, he begins to roll the floor laughing his heart out. _Weirdo…. _I think to myself dully.

* * *

I lay in my own bed staring up at the dirt brown ceiling. A puff of air leaves past my lips. I turn onto my tummy and stare at the brown wall. Reaching my right hand up to the wall I draw random designs, with my index finger. "These guys should really have let us picked our own rooms…" – I sigh – "Oh well."

Positioning my body in my most comfortable, the best I can with this kimono-like PJs, I ready myself for sleep, knowing that tomorrow will be just as hectic as today. My eyelids slowly gain weight and I'm soon engulfed in darkness.

**+DREAM~!!+**

My nose twitches and my face scrunches up in irritation. With much effort I pick myself up. I rub underneath my eyes, and then I look around. Gradually my eyes widen and my mouth hangs open, or gaps. "N-Nani, h-h-how did I en-end up in a forest!?" I bolt up to my feet and ruffle my hair.

I don't know how but I've somehow ended in a forest. Due to the fact that it's night it seems really, EXTREMELY, scary. Once my eyes adjust to the darkness I see everything, rather, clearly. There are large, towering, trees and some type of flower encircles around them.

My body tenses up and my eyes widen as someone's, or something's, arms wrap around my shoulders. Hot breath tickles the left side of my face. "Boo." The man says.

I let out a high pitched scream and – try – to elbow him in the face. I turn around to face the person, with a furious expression. But it immediately drops seeing the glowing star in front of me.

"Yo-Youko…?" I tilt my head and blink.

The silver kitsune swirls his right pinky in his ear. "Ow," he grimaces. "You got a good set of lungs, you know that, little one?" His golden orbs gaze into my brown ones.

I laugh sheepishly and scratch my right cheekbone. "Gomen nasai, Youko," I blush lightly.

He stops cleaning his ear and places his fists on his hips. "Just promise to never scream like that again." bit by bit a smirk forms on his lips and a twinkle sparks in his eyes. "Unless I'm the one making you scream…."

I blink absently at him; not really getting get. "Huh?" Just then a light bulb goes off in my head. "AHH!!!! You hentai no baka," I run backwards, covering my flushed face, until my back hits a tree.

_Hentai no baka, hentai no baka, hentai no baka!!! _

Slowly I move my hands down my face, only to show my watery eyes, when I hear a light laugh, or maybe a chuckle.

"Why am I a 'hentai no baka' when," – he disappears from his stop, but suddenly appears right in front of me – "you are the one with your head in the gutter." He gently taps the tip of my nose. (Because, I enjoy breathing I didn't cover it.)

"I do not have my head in the gutter!" I rip my hands away from my face and bare my teeth at him.

"Oh?" he straightens himself, crosses his arms, and smirks down at me.

"Hai." I say sternly. "Didn't you notice how long it took for me to get it?" I try to control my darkening blush.

Youko gently exhales through his nose, his smirk still in place. Suddenly his hands slam on either side of my face; a gasp tears from me. Despite the sudden act he has a rather peaceful look, with his golden eyes closed. Our breaths mix together as he gingerly places his forehead on mine; my blush darkening.

"Can I show you something?" he whispers.

"I-It depends o-on what th-that 'something' i-i-i-is…." I stutter my invisible protective walls go up instantly at the question.

Youko reveals his gorgeous eyes. The right corners of his lips tug upward. "Hentai no baka…."

I grit my teeth. "I AM NOT A-" Youko places his index on my lips, shutting me on the stop.

His golden orbs become very serious and a frown comes onto his features. "This has nothing to do with sex," – if possible my blush gets darker – "I just want to show you something."

I visibly debate with myself; I dart my eyes back and forth as if I'm watching a tennis match. I sigh and nod my head, closing my eyes.

"Wonderful." One of Youko's arms encircles around my waist, my eyes widen at the strange contact from the guy, and he sprints off.

"Yipe!!" I grip onto his white clothing and shut my eyes tight.

....

My hair flies up and my stomach flips at the pull of the sudden stop.

"Don't you want to see the view, little one?" Youko's hot breath heats the shell of my ear.

Hesitantly I open my eyes and turn my head. A gasp goes past my lips. The forest's top illuminates from the full red moon. The stars scattered in the dark velvet sky glow red, and those further from it are pink. I stare up at the flushing moon, amazed by the sight.

"The moon in Ningenkai is sliver, correct?" he asks.

"Un," I nod my head, my eyes not leaving the moon. I turn my and gaze up at the sliver kitsune. "Why is the moon here red, Youko?"

He shrugs his shoulders and smirks down at me. "Why is the moon in your world white?" due to the redness of the moon his locks is a pinkish color.

I glare, to the best of my abilities, up at him. "I hate science." I tell him, rather randomly.

Youko laughs, so loud that the earth below shakes. I grip onto his shirt with a fearful look on my features. His laughter smoothes into a chuckle and slowly comes to a stop. "You are something else." He grins down at me.

I don't let go of his shirt as I nod my head. "Thanks?"

His hand, that isn't holding on my hip, picks up my chin. I open my eyes, with a blush on my face. My eyes twitch with fright at the contact of someone's warm and smooth lips on my forehead. My entire body tenses, and a cheeks heatn up, as the lips move down in between my eyes. My shoulders shake as they move down my nose. The lips stop at the corner of my mouth, not necessarily on it though. My eyes slowly begin to water; I don't know what to do.

"Why so tense, little one," Youko's lips barely skim mine.

My body trembles, my breath comes put ragged. "I-I-I-I-I--" I'm unable to finish my sentence as a cold liquidy feeling washes over me.

**+End Dream+**

My scream comes out short as a roughening and large hand slams on my mouth.

"Sh!" my vision comes back. I see Mark with his finger on his pressed, smiling lips. I look to my left and see Rebecca dressed in a purple yukata with black dragons stitched on it and a light violet datejime, she holding a lit candle with one hand a bucket in the other, with a smile on her pink plump lips. I look back up at Mark, my eyes still wide.

He brings his hand away from his lips with a mischievous look in his dark green orbs. "We're getting out of here," he whispers. "So be quiet."

I nod my head, as he detaches his hand from my mouth and he gets off of me. Mark heads to his room, as does Rebecca. The light doesn't fade as they leave. I look around and see the candles are lit. I rip the covers off of my body and head toward my closet.

Opening the dark wooden doors I groan, because of the dim lighting. I walk away from the wardrobe and go to one of the stands that have candles on them. Carefully I pick up two candle stands, with five lit white candles, and place them on either side of the clothed filled cabinet.

I quickly get out a red yukata, on closer inspection I see sakura petals 'scattered in the wind' and on the far left corner is sakura in full bloom. I throw it on my bed and get out a matching datejime, I bundle it up in a ball and doss it on my bed as well. Pulling out a drawer, inside the wardrobe, I take out a pair of zōri.

With those in hand I zip to my bed, or at the foot of my bed. I take off my kinzakura kosode, it pooling around my feet. My sheer white hadajuban acting as my, aged, undergarments. I drop the straw sandals and pick up the yukata and shrug it on. I tie the datejime tightly around my waist and slip on the shoes, not bothering to replace the tabi.

After I'm fully dressed I walk over to the door leading to Ookami's room. "I'm ready…." I whisper, after I lightly knock on it.

The door open's and Mark and Rebecca come out, and walk towards the door. Rebecca blows her candle out. I dash around my room blowing the lit candles out.

"Alright, let's go." Becky whispers. Mark nods his head and opens the door.

With great stealth we walk the nearly dark halls, not to stir the air of our presents. Mark is in front, a katana in one hand and a dagger in the other. Rebecca is in the middle and I'm in the back. I periodically look over my shoulder; I hate being paranoid. I grip onto Becky's back; she looks over her shoulder, and then looks ahead.

We make it to the main entrance, surprisingly without meeting any demons. I nearly gasp at seeing the mouth of the cave. But I can see two demons sitting outside of it. I swallow a lump that has formed in my throat.

_We're so close. _My thoughts whine. My grip on Kitty-Cat tightens.

Mark! I mouth. My eyes widen in shock and I inch closer, Becky does the same.

With great stealth Ookami sneaks up on the demon to the right, the closest one. He slowly brings up his silver dagger and slashes the creature's throat. I close my eyes and cover my ears.

I feel a light tap on my forearm and open my eyes.

"It's over." Rebecca whispers.

"Now let's go!" Mark harshly whispers while jumping from his place at the entrance.

Becky and I jog toward him.

* * *

Rebecca stretches her arms above her head and lets out a groan. She arches her back; her spine cracks. I cover my mouth and yawn, then I move my fingers around and they crack. Mark leans against a tree while cleaning his larger blade.

I lift my head and, through the canopy, I see the sky has various colors, the sun beginning to rise.

"We better get moving." Ookami lifts himself off the tree, while placing the now clean katana in its sheath.

Becky lowers her arms and gazes at him. I do the same. He's wearing a gray ninja-like shirt with dark bordering, matching loose pants, spiked gloves are around his wrists, and neutral flat boots.

"Un," Kitty-Cat and I say simultaneously, nodding our heads.

Mark takes the lead, with his hand on the blade's handle and the other holds onto the 6 3/4" dagger. Kitty-Cat and I are on either side of him not far behind.

I sigh blissfully; enjoying the taste of freedom. But… why can't I shake the feeling that we're being watched?

* * *

**Author Stuff:**

**Phew! *falls back onto bed* I'm beat!**

**Youko: *messes with laptop, sees how many pages this chapter is* Damn! Twenty-four pages!?**

**Kuronue: *looks over Youko's shoulder, whistles in amazement* This makes it the longest chapter yet, correct? *looks toward me***

**Me: *nods* Hai.... *goes to sleep***

**Youko: Well she's beat.... *smirks, looks up at Kuro* Looks like we'll be wrapping it up.**

**Kuro: *smirks***

**Youko: Okay you've all read Chapter 10-**

**Kuro: "Foreign Contact and a Taste of Freedom"**

**Youko: So tell us what you think**

**Kuro: In the review that you WILL post, along with**

**Youko: A song that you believe fits best with this story.**

**Both: *nod their heads in satifcation* That was good. Pup-chan should let us wrap it up more often.**

**Me: *throws a pillow at them* Will you two shut-up; I'm trying to sleep!! Don't make me get Onee-chan. *glares, falls back onto bed***

**Both: *lean towards audience, whispering* We value our lives, so please leave a review and a name of a song....**


	11. Here, Kitty, Kitty, Kitty!

***chibi sad* How come you gals listen to these two bakas *points Youko and Kuronue* but not ME!!!!! *anime tears***

**Youko & Kuro: *wrap their arms around my shoulders, grins* Cause we're better than you. And they LOVE~ us!**

**Me: *anrgy chibi pout***

**In the last chapter, a review got my attention.** "Youko seems more flirtatious in the dreams, does he not? And Kuronue is just kinda like...there. Haha. Actually, he's getting a bit  
creepy/smart-alec-esque, though we don't really see much of him. Ah, well, I guess he's for later chapters?" DarkXLightxmagique.  
**Youko is more flirtatious in the dreams because he has an 'image to uphold' and he's a high class demon - flirting with a human in relaity would ruin his image and lower his class. Kuronue is in this chapter a lot more, and you all will be seeing much more of him. (If things go as planned....)**

**Key:  
**"blah, blah, blah" = talking  
_blah, blah, blah =_ thinking  
'blah, blah, blah' = involuntary mind-reading  
_"blah, blah, blah _= crystal talking... though there is a part where it isn't....

**Ch. 11: Here, Kitty, Kitty, Kitty!**

**Kuronue's POV**

I kick the side of our, now, dead comrade. Turning him onto his back I tilt my head at the sight. Unlike the other one, this guy's intestines are out and butchered. The gash goes up to his sternum; slightly showing his ribs and still green lungs. And, as if that wasn't enough, the guy's throat is sliced.

"The person didn't do a bad job." I state, inquiring the now dead demons.

"Un," Kurama sounds from the other side of the opening, examining the other dead teammate.

"I'm rather surprised that we didn't sense anything…." I look over to him. Kurama has been awfully quiet since he awoke. _Surely he doesn't miss them that much? _I think to myself, wondering if the deaths of our comrades have affected him so extensively. They were low class after all, though they fought rather well.

Kurama seems to be deep in thought. He closes his eyes and sighs. "It would seem-"

"Kurama-sama!! OI, Kurama-sama!!" another demon comes running out of the hideout. I look over my shoulder to see who it is.

I forget the guy's name but he seems to be rather interesting. Teal, warty, skin is covered by the white 'uniform,' and there are orange bandages over the lower part of his arms. His hair is shaggy and dark blue though odd it is nothing like mine and Kurama's, our hair gleams in the sunlight while his remains dull. Coming out of the cave he goes over to the silver kitsune but bends his upper half, places his nasty yellow clawed hands on his knees, and pants. Note: that his tresses fail to shine. Where ears are normally, for humans, placed fish-like ears are there teal and purple. His large nose is smashed into his oval shaped head and his lips at dry, large, and purple.

The phrase 'Fish out of water' comes to mind.

"K… K… K… urama-sa-ma," the fish pants. "The-The ningens aren't in their rooms."

"Of course they aren't." Kurama's golden eyes glare down at the fish demon's own. I walk around the two, just to see the fish's expression. I lightly smirk in satisfaction; his large green fish-glass eyes are widening with shock and his mouth hangs agape.

"They've escaped." Kurama continues.

"NANI?!?!?!" a chorus sounds all around us. I raise a brow at Kurama, his face empty of all emotion.

_He knew? _I barely tilt my head; my indigo blue eyes gain a curiosity in their depths.

Kurama's eyes glared at the others; they freeze instantly. "Where are the ones that were supposed to be standing guard outside the humans' quarters?" his voice roared.

Visibly the men flinch but two, unfortunate, souls step forward. Both seem to be air demons, judging by their appearance. Looking back at Kurama I see specks of red in his golden eyes.

_Not good…. _I take LARGE side step, away from my old friend. The wind around him picks up, his youki flaring; it pushes, lifts, and ruffles his silver tresses. His facial expression is unemotional, though you can _smell_ that he is beyond mad. I look over to the two demons. They're shaking in their shoes.

While Kurama continues to 'discipline' them I pick up my pendant. My reflection becomes visible in the red, blood colored, stone. My rough fingers grip on the sides of the silver necklace. This pendant helps me trick the enemy, with illusions. My father gave me this before he passed on; his father (my grandfather) gave it to him, and so on. So, when I have a son I'll give it to him before I die.

"Hmmm…" my fingers trace the necklace. I drop my medallion; it falls in the middle of my sternum. "Wonder where they could be."

Kurama shouts the names of our allies to stay and watch the hideout, while the ones he doesn't call are suppose to follow him. Kurama sprints off into the woods; I run after him, not bothering to look at the bloody bodies. No soon after I go with Kurama, I sense others come along.

**+Rebecca's POV+**

"Ookami--" Gloria whines. "We've been walking for hours, can't we take a break?"

'_My poor, innocent feet are killing me!' _I can hear her mind's voice complain.

I smile at my friend's childish antics. "Mark, she's right. We need a break – these shoes are really meant for traveling, for so long."

I see his shoulders hunch forward and hear him grumble. "Why couldn't I've been the type of guy to have guy friends, and not girl ones?"

I chuckle. "Because, you love~ us~," I grin at his back.

_Some more than others…. _I look over to a tired Gloria, my grin going into a gentle smile. She lets out a sleepy sigh. Sometimes I'm led to believe that she's bipolar; one minute she is very connected with her emotions, but then it seems that she has concrete in between them.

Ookami grumbles. "Fine."

'_Besides, the sun is setting anyways.' _

I look up, after I hear his thought. Through the many leaves I see traces of the darkly painted sky.

"You two, stay here. I'm going to go get something – to eat." Mark tells us. He doesn't look back he walks into the darkening woods.

"We better start a fire now – rather than later." I begin to walk, but stop short. I look down at my wrist and blink; seeing Kitsune's fingers wrapped around it. I lift my gaze, only to meet brown bangs hiding matching eyes.

I begin to concentrate on her. Her thoughts are jumbled together; just mumbling, speeding, words. Though, through it all I hear the words: 'What will she say?' Then after that more and more hushed whispers followed.

"Kitty-Cat," Gloria's voice is… shy?

"Hai?"

"I… I got a question for you…."

Kitsune's grip on my wrist slacks, I pull it back and begin to walk around the semi-clearing while gathering wood and stones.

I straighten my back and gaze over my shoulder; I see Gloria wring her hands. "Nan desu ka, Kitsune," I crouch down and drop the objects I've gathered. I place the stones in a circle and criss-cross the wood.

"Anno…" I raise my light blue eyes; looking up the older female I see a blush go across her pale cheeks. She is at my side in an instant – in the same position as me, only she twiddling her fingers. "Uhh…. Ahem! Is-Is it possible to-to uhhh…" she looks down at the unlit wood.

"Should I just read your thoughts?" I ask her, I say more to myself. _Though it will be hard with all these floating, jumbled up, words. _

"No," Gloria shakes her head and lets out a sigh. "Is it possible to…," she swallows a lump in her throat. I inwardly drum my fingers on my knees. "Lose your first kiss in a dream – figuratively speaking, of course."

"Of course," I nod. Though, I know, by her facial expression, that she did dream of kissing a guy. But 'who' is the question. I can only hope that it's a certain guy friend of ours.

"Hmm… I really wouldn't consider it losing your first _real_ kiss. But maybe your first dream one." I give her a grin. "So you don't have to worry, but," I change my position, so now my body is facing her. "Why are you asking?" a bright red blush explodes on to her face.

"Uhh…" her fingers knot together. "Cause."

"That's a good reason."

"I thought so." Kitsune begins to play with the twigs, a blush still on her face. "W-We better get this fire started."

"Right," Seeing that she doesn't want to talk about it anymore I leave the subject as is, and hit two rocks together; getting a fire in the process after the fourth attempt.

**+??? POV+**

"Milord, we've found those humans – you've taken an interest in." A large, but lean, silhouette of a man bows at the doors entrance. His right arm bends so that his fist is over his chest.

A man, in a golden throne, hums.

In front of the lord is a, levitating, glowing, crystal ball. Below the ball is a golden stand: it stands on four circular, tightly curled, ends. As the shimmering strands go up, they intertwine together, almost like stems of a rose bush, but on all four sides leave a figure eight pictures. The top matches the bottom (four tightly wound curls, only going inward), the inside of it has silver thorns going around it, from each of the multiple tips lighting shoots out and to the other one across it.

"Really now," his right leg crosses over his left and his left fist supports his head, a smug smirk is on his lips as he watches the two human females around a roaring fire.

"Hai, what are your orders, Milord?" the servant, warrior, doesn't move from his position.

The lord's right middle finger draws out small circles, on the metal arm chair. "Hmmm… leave them."

"Milord?" the warrior raises his head, the slightest bit, and his eyes gleaming with curiosity.

"Until the morning…." The demonic lord smirks, showing rows of white fangs.

"Hai."

"Leave me."

The loyal servant stands up, bends his upper half in a bow, and leaves. He closes the massive wooden, and metal, doors.

The demonic lord drums his fingers, his smirk still in place. His eyes glimmer at the sight of the two young women. But they harden at the sight of the man stumbling into the campsite. The tallest female, Gloria from what he gathered, gets up from her place beside the shortest of the lot, Rebecca, and helps the male, Mark. Mark laughs at something Gloria told him, pink dust across the male human's cheekbones and he walks toward the fire. He begins to cut the creature he killed. He lays the blood dripping meat on the heating stones. Rebecca, from time to time, flips the strips of meat. Gloria sits on her knees, while staring into the dancing flames, deep in thought he guesses.

White fangs slowly begin to show as tanned, smooth, lips pull back. "This will be very interesting…."

"You will not succeed…." A wary voice sounds in a dark corner.

"Hm?" the demon lord raises his eyes toward the old crow demoness. Her dark, large, feathery, wings are tied against to her, as well as her feet. Dried blood caked her face, beak, neck, and any skin exposing.

Her coal colored eyes began to dull and her black beak barely even moves. "The hearts will become one – when you fail to realize what you did."

The man hums and raises an eyebrow. He snorts at what the old woman tells him. A light fire engulfs Achlys.

"You will perish, J-…." Her voice hisses, her last breath; unable to say the demon lord's name.

The demonic lord simply smirks in satisfaction; now that the old, foolish, demoness is dead. He continues to watch the weak mortals.

**+Rebecca's POV+**

I flip another piece of the drying portion. _I hope it tastes better than it looks… and where it came from. _My face scrunches up a bit and I look over at the dead deer demon.

"So what were you talking about when I was gone?" Mark's green irises go from me to Gloria, and back again.

"Nothing," Gloria answers to quickly. A dark blush starts from her neck and stops at her hairline.

"Oh~?"

'_Crap!' _Gloria's mind squeaks. In a flash Ookami is by her side. His large hands on both of her shoulders, a sly grin on his lips, and he begins to shake Kitsune, bugging her to tell him – sometimes pinching her cheeks.

I laugh lightly at the sight. I bring my head down, shaking it. _He is so flirting with her. _

"ACK!" my eyes widen at the sound. I look up and see a slab of fresh, bloody, demon meat across Mark's dark green, closed eyes.

My hand flies up to my mouth and I laugh. Mark peals the meat of his eyes and tosses it into the roaring blaze. "Heh, you do realize that I'm gonna have to get you back now?"

Gloria lets out a squeal and runs away from him. Mark quickly gets up and chases after her. I grip the sides of my tummy, and double over, as I laugh.

"Oh, you think you're getting off easy?!" Mark shouts. I squeal and run away from him. Soon all three of us are playing a game of tag, or hug-attack tag.

..........  
I lay with my back to the fire, my arm as my pillow. I stare straight ahead of myself, but not looking at anything. I hear the even, but rather loud, breathing of my friends. I close my eyes wanting sleep to come to me, but it doesn't.

"_The men are dangerous."_

I let out a sigh. These types of thoughts have been entering my mind since we left the hideout.

_But which men are dangerous? Is it Kuronue, Youko, and the other demons, or someone else? _I rub in between my eyes; feeling a headache creeping up. Can't these thoughts ever make any sense?

I roll over and look into the shirking flames. Heaviness begins to weigh down on my eyelids and I let out a long yawn. Sleep slowly begins to takes its hold on me.

**+Morning+**

_A bird is going to die! _I think to myself. I push myself up into a sitting position, on my calves due to this awesome yukata. I rub underneath my eyes and look around. Kitsune and Ookami are still sleeping, the fire died during the night's sleep, and the 'dinner' still has a lot of meat on it.

"_The skies have eyes."_

_Again with the creepy thoughts…, _I let out a sigh. But nonetheless I look upward… I don't see any eyes.

I scratch the top of my head and growler at the sky. My lower jaw slightly trembles, my hand goes up to cover my mouth as I yawn. I get up on shaky legs and walk over to Mark. Falling down to my knees I shake his shoulder.

He groans and shakes away my hand. "Five more minutes, Glow."

I smile and shake my head. _Even in his sleep he thinks about her. _I hear a groan from across the dead fire. Gloria rolls onto her back and rubs her eyes with the back of her hand.

"That damn bird needs to shut the hell up," she growls. What type of teenager is a morning person?

She sits up: her dark brown hair is tussled, messed up. I chuckle seeing a bit of drool coming from the side of her mouth. I lightly dab the matching side of my mouth, with a grin on my lips. She uses the sleeve of her yukata to wipe away of the drool.

"Ookami hasn't woken up yet?" she rubs underneath her eye, the hand that doesn't have drool.

"Un," I nod my head and stare down at the snoring wolf guy.

"Just like in school – from what his teachers say." Gloria mumbles to herself. She gets up and stumbles over to us. She falls on her hands and knees and pokes Mark in the middle of his chest. "C'mon, Ookami, wake up…," she yawns.

Ookami swats away her hand; Gloria growls, her eyebrow twitches. "If only I had a pen – to flick his ear with…." Gloria snarls. She grips on the cloth that covers Ookami's shoulders twists her fists, getting a better hold on them, and shakes him. "MARK!!!!!!! YOU SON OF A BITCH!!!!!!!! WAKE-UP DAMN-IT!!!!!!!!!" Mark's head snaps back and forth.

To cover my laugh my hand flies up to my mouth. I see the white of his eyes.

"WAH!!!!" white, anime, tears erupt from his eyes. "I don't like this ride anymore!!!"

Gloria throws the poor guy to the ground. She bolts up and jogs toward the woods. "Kitsune," I get her attention. "Where are you going?"

"To the bathroom!" with that done she runs away. I chuckle light and shake my head. I look over to Mark, who is sitting up and yawning.

"How long do you think we have until we get caught?"

Ookami shrugs his shoulders. "I really don't know, Beck. But what I do know is that if we stay here for much longer; we'll get caught much faster."

I nod my head in understanding. I stand up and kick dirt on the dark red embers. Mark stands up and stretches. "We'll get going when Glow gets back from the… tree…." He and I both snicker.

Soon after our little fest is over, Gloria comes out of the woods grumbling.

"All better?" I ask. Gloria gazes up at me, grins, and nods. All three of us laugh. Once the cinders are covered with dirt we all walk away.

**+Kuronue's POV+**

_Their scents are covering this little area._ My nose lightly sniffs the atmosphere; the girls' and the guy's smell lay around here. One demon rolls one of the stones that are in the formation of a circle – their campfire.

Kurama walked away awhile ago, he told us not to follow him. Minutes later he comes back shaking his head and chuckling to himself.

"Kurama," I gain his attention. "What are you laughing about?"

"Nothing. Let's continue the search!!"

After he said that the men follow him. I linger at the human's campsite; getting an odd feeling, a feeling of being watched. But, soon I follow after them.

**+Rebecca's POV+**

The sound of rushing water runs through my ears. I look down on my left and stare at my, walking, reflection. Gray speeding fish swim in the opposite direction. I raise my gaze and absently stare at Ookami's back. It's been three hours and no creepy thoughts have entered my mind.

"_In the river there is a beast: a terrible beast, a terrible beast that wants a feast."_

My eyes widen. "Get away from the river!!" is the first thing that explodes from my mouth. Milliseconds later we all jump away and a large youkai erupts from the, once calm, river. All three of us run away.

Everything goes by in a blur. I stumble; stupid, awesome, yukata. I don't bother to look back.

"_There is no youkai after the cat, there is a youkai chasing the fox, there is a youkai after the wolf. All of which are dangerous and want power."_

I slowly come to a stop and look over my shoulder. Sure enough there isn't a youkai behind me. My breathing comes out in heavy pants and my chest heaves. I wipe sweat off my brow. "This is just too much." I whisper to myself.

The rustling of the bushes, to my right, makes my head snap towards the sound.

"_Let us see who is faster. The human-cat or the killer?"_

My heartbeat quickens at the thought and I sprint away. Blood slowly runs down my face, from the cuts the snapping twigs. Bits of bark enter my eyes, making them water. Thorn stickers dig their way into purple dragon stitched outfit.

A surprised squeal comes from me as I trip over an uprooted root. I ignore the pain and dash. Feeling the tiny hairs on the back of my neck; I make a sharp left.

Without moving my head I look up. The thought of jumping in the trees and losing it would be good. I continue to run, looking for a low enough branches to kick myself up.

My lungs and throat begin to burn, my legs begin to ach. A gasp escapes me as I see a low branch ahead of me. Pushing myself forward I gain speed and ready my hands, to push myself up. The tiny hairs on my neck stand up. I jump, grabbing the branch and hoisting myself up. I continue to climb, ignoring my tearing kimono, wanting to as much space from me and my pursuer. Looking down I see a streak of lightning bolt by.

I let out a quiet sigh.

"Here, Kitty, Kitty, Kitty…." A masculine voice sounds below me. I instinctively hold my breath, and look down. There's a male demon on the ground. He has long black hair in a thin ponytail. His complexion is deathly pale, but he has a dark teal tattoo on his left arm. His clothing is complex, but his sleeveless black shirt has gold borders. I can't see his pants due to cream colored, red bordered, cape-like-thing tied around his waist.

In his left hand is a bloody machete. The blood seems rather fresh. One word comes to my mind. _Slasher…. _I, somehow, know this man's name. Slasher walks away, repeating for the 'Kitty' to come to him.

"_Here, Kitty, Kitty, Kitty." _My mind mocks. _Yeah, I don't think so, baka. _

Thirty minutes go by. Unsure if he's in range I sluggishly go down the tree. Once my feet meet the ground I look around. Nothing but trees, bushes, flowers, trees, grass, blood, trees…!

"What!" I whisper. My breathing and steps echoes through my ears, as I walk to a tree. The blood looks aged. "This can't be the place where we found Gloria's. … Hers was a sea of it."

"_This is Achlys'."_

_Achlys? Who the heck is that?_

I lift my gaze to where Slasher went off to. I take a step back, not liking the feeling I'm getting. Completely turning around I sprint towards the river. Praying that someone, nearly anyone I know, would be there. A transparent image of Gloria, Mark, Grandma, Kuronue, and Youko all of their expressions are of complete joy. Two more people, two extremely important people, walk in. My mom and dad.

I stop dead. Tears brim my eyes, my throat tightens. I feel the warm waters escape my eyes and travel down my face. I let out a sob. I bring my head down, sadly shaking it.

"They're dead…. And it's my fault… it's my… fault." I let out another sob.

My eyes widen as something stabs my left breast. I cough; a thick, sticky, substance covers my chin. Terrified I look down. More blood flows down from my mouth, as I see a dagger in my chest.

Cold breath goes across my ear. "One down, two to go." A dark chuckle sounds from Slasher. Before I pass out I tell my friends, my brother and sister, a warning.

**+Mark's POV+**

My katana stabs the, blood covered, earth. My right hand lets go of the handle and grips my shirt, over my heart. Heavy pants escape me. Not from the battle I've just got done… but… this brutal pain I feel. My vision wavers.

"Damn-it!!!!!!!!" I yell. I screw my eyes shut; few tears escape. I let go of my heart and punch the ground. "Damn-it! Damn-it! Damn-it! Damn-it!!"

I haven't felt this type of pain since Gloria 'died'. My eyes widen.

_She-They can't be… NO!!! _My knuckles redden as my fist comes in contact with a stone. I bite lower lip, so hard that it draws a stream of blood.

"There's not a chance in hell that those two are gone."The thought of the girls dead slowly crawls into my mind.

"The Crystal of Healing, most likely not. Though, the other – the Crystal of Knowing – is a definite possibility."

Hearing an amused chuckle I raise my gaze. Joyful crimson orbs, snow white hair, pale skin, and a pleased grin fall into my line of vision.

"You bastard…." I growl. I release my weapon, from the ground, and lunge for the demon. He blocks it.

His red eyes fill with sick pleasure. "I'm going to enjoy killing you." He tells me.

"Like hell you are!!" I try to hit him again.

* * *

**End Notes: XD In the ****beginning Kuronue is obsessed with hair shiny-ness!!!!**

**Kuro: *grummbles* You just had to put that.**

**Me: ^_^ Yup, 'sides you're always petting Youko-kun.**

**Kuro: *runs fingers through Youko's hair* I have no idea what you're talking about, Pup-chan.**

**Youko: *purring at the sensation of Kuro's fingers moving over his scalp and behind his ears***

**Me: *tilts head, blinks, giggles***

***turns attention to readers* Please leave a nice review - I'm still waiting for a certain number of songs. Maybe next chapter there'll be a fight scene. *does weird eyebrow thing* Though I can't grantee that it'll be good - after all it's an unknown demon vs a human. I'll try to put in as much blood and pain in the next chapter.**


	12. Pain

**Wow, it seems like I just updated this.... *shrugs* Oh well! I just couldn't stop typing this chapter!! A hell of a lot of stuff happens in this chapter... and maybe the next.... *does weird eyebrow thing*  
This chapter made me sad!! TT0TT A lot of crying, screaming, and pain--**

**Youko: *points to the title* Hence what this chapter is called. *smirks***

**Me: *hits him in his bicep* Don't sound like a know-it-all, smartass!****  
Anyway, please read and review! *brings out Kuronue's pendant, waves it in front of readers* You will leave a review, you will leave a review...**

**Chapter 12: Pain**

Pain, searing pain, that's all I feel. Blood trickles/pours down my arms, legs, face, trunk, and mouth. I pant heavily as I look over the demon.  
He has snow white hair that runs down to his neck, blood red eyes, and white skin. My blood is splattered over his noble clothing.  
I grip onto my katana's handle as I glare at him. While whistling he twirls his weapon, a giant axe, which he can handle as if it weighs like a feather, in between his fingers.

"I'm surprised that you haven't fainted from blood loss, Ookami."  
My eyes widen. How does he know my nickname?!  
He chuckles. "Or should I call you by your original name…, Mark."  
"No…." I growl.  
"Hm?" he stops twirling his axe and puts it in the ground. "Why is that, Mark?" he grins.  
"Only my friends call me those: 'Mark' and 'Ookami'." I snarl at him. With strength I never knew I had, I stand up. I hold up my sword, glaring daggers at him.  
The demon sighs and lifts up his weapon. He balances his axe on his shoulder. "I thought this was going to be fun," he sighs. "Oh well. Jarith-sama wants the crystals."  
"Jarith-sama?" I question.  
"Hai, but since I'm in the mood…" his grin is sickly. "I'll make your death pleasurable."  
How can death be 'pleasurable?'

He lifts the axe off his shoulder and slashes it toward me. I jump out of the way, only to have my shirt torn and more blood to erupt. An extensive amount of wind blows me into a tree.  
"Ah, Hell!" I groan. My body feels like it's weak. "Damn-… it…."  
I look to my left. My weapon is out of my reach.  
"Shit."  
My hand inches toward the black handle.

"Ookami?"  
That voice! With wide eyes I look forward. No… way…!  
"Hey, there, Ookami! What's up?"  
"Glow-chan…?" I whisper.  
"You~ betcha!" she winks. Glow walks up to me. I'm astounded that she's wearing her school uniform.  
She holds out her hand to me.  
"Why don't we go find Kitty-Cat-chan, and then I'll fix those wounds up for ya'!"  
I'd never thought that I would be so happy to see her, her joyous chocolate-brown eyes and her smile.  
But… her eyes… and smile… why is there an evil in them? I squint to look closer at her.  
"Nani?" she tilts her head.  
I ignore her. I place my hand over my stomach wound, wanting to stop the bleeding, and walk toward my sword. I grip to the handle with my bloody hand. "My sorry…." I whisper.  
"Hmmm?"  
I whip around and slash the blade into her side; she lets out an inhuman screech. I cringe at the sound. She stumbles back a few.  
"You bastard…." She glares at me.  
As I look at 'her,' her face twists and distorts. Her brown hairs shorten into white tresses, and her eyes mix until they're blood-shot red. Along with her hair and eyes, her body transforms into the demon I am fighting.  
His hand meets the wound on his side. Though, it seems to be healing quickly.  
I stare at him absently.  
"Never do that." I tell him.  
"How did you even know?"  
"Her eyes, and smile for one. You also weren't concerned about my wounds – like she would've been. True she would be worried about Kitty-Cat-chan, but seeing how I am," I raise my arms, to show him the gashes. "She would treat these. A damn-stupid mistake." I glare at him.  
Why does my katana feel so heavy?  
His fangs enlarge and his hackles rise. He pulls his out axe, from the holder on his back.  
My sword falls from my hands.  
There's a numb, sweltering pain through my body.  
Everything goes black.

**Third person**

Mark falls back onto the dark red earth with a splattering 'thud'. His dark emerald eyes haze over, dead. The demon, Sullivan, walks up to him with a cocky grin on his lips.  
He wiggles his axe out of the human and places back in its holder.  
A light purple, three dimensional kite-like shaped, crystal shimmers and out of Mark's chest. Sullivan bends down and scoops up the glowing crystal. It floats above his blood covered hand.  
Blood slides down his, once snow white hair.  
"Such a bother," he gazes down Mark and gives a sickly grin. "But worth it."  
He carefully maneuvers the Crystal of Courage into a little side pouch, on his right hip.  
"Buh-bye." He smiles down at Mark.

He turns on his heel and walks into the dark forest. His white, blood-splattered cape flows behind him.

**+Gloria's POV (first person)+**

I grasp a fist full of cloth, over my left breast, and fall to my knees. Tears fall from my eyes as I try to catch my breath. I cough but nothing comes up, like I thought it would.  
It feels like something was just ripped from my heart.  
I close my eyes and yell; "Damn-it!!!!!!!" a fresh load of tears comes out. I scream in pain.  
Not again. Not this pain again! I think to myself. I felt this just hours ago.  
I continue to scream and cry in agony.  
Why? Why?!  
"WHY?!!!!!" I screech. "I just wanna go home!"  
My tears fall to the earth and go unnoticed, watering the soil.  
Bit by bit pieces of my cracked heart falls. I scream in turmoil. I wrap my other arm around my stomach; wanting the vomiting sensation to go away.  
A flash of Mark's content face goes through my mind. Before it was Rebecca. I lean forward.  
"No…." I groan. How dare they?! How dare they leave me all alone!! "Stupid… selfish… jerks!" I quietly insult them. They just left me here!  
I cry. My entire body shakes as sobs rip from me.

A twig snaps under pressure.  
"Oh, my." I hear a cool voice.  
I look up at hearing the voice; I see that it's a male demon. Through blurry eyes I can make out that he has red hair, tan skin, and green and yellow clothing. I sniffle and rub underneath my eyes, wanting to rid myself of these troublesome tears.  
"What's wrong?" he kneels down in front of me.  
I close my eyes as I let out a sob, not being able to say anything. I feel his rough fingers cradle my chin and something, silk-like tab under my eyes.  
"Why is an S-class crying?" he asks himself.  
I open my eyes once he stops trying to dry my face. I gaze into his feline dark violet eyes.  
They're pretty, almost like jewels…. I think to myself.  
"What ails you?" he tries again.  
Why does he care, he's a demon, right?

"My-My-My fr-fr-iends-" I'm unable to finish as I begin to cry again. The pain in my heart triples; I scream.  
The demon wraps his arms around me. I cry into his green sash, that's over his right shoulder. He rubs my head in a soothing matter.  
Are they really gone? No! They can't be! Why would they just leave me here?

Slowly my crying ceases, but I remain still. I just want to be held right now….  
"Arigatou…." I whisper to this strange, yet kind demon.  
"'Twas nothing."  
I unwilling pull myself away from him. My eyes remain down as I do so. They widen at mark just below his collar bone.  
Five kite shaped marks are in the form of a sakura blossom, and from his left shoulder down to his right hip is a scar.  
I resist moving my fingers across it, like I normally do/did to Mark.

"Are you alright?" he asks.  
I nod, but fail to meet his eyes.  
"What of your friends?"  
I grip the fabric harder as the pain comes back. I roll my teeth over my lower lip.  
I must look pathetic to him. He thinks I'm am S-class demon – the highest of classes, I recall.  
"I-I-I…" tears again fall from my eyes. "I think they're dead!" my face twists with sadness. This pain is far too great for someone like me to take!  
"I'm sorry for your loss…."  
Why is this demon being so… so… compassionate, when all the others were so… so… uncompassionate…? Aren't demons supposed to be cold-hearted?  
An image of Achlys and Youko flash through my mind. Those two were kind-hearted, minus Youko's flirts, so can this one be… be kind?  
"… Arigatou…." I whisper.  
His hands travel up to my elbows; I feel his fingerless gloves too. Slowly he raises me up. I stand on shaky legs. The knots in my stomach fail to go away, as well as the pain in my heart.  
"I apologize." I look up at him. "For your loss…."  
He's so kind!  
"Do you wish to look for their bodies?"  
I bite my lower lip, but nod my head. His fingers intertwine with mine and he leads me toward my friends' bodies.  
I gaze down at the ground, catching glimpses of this demon's black shoes and his yellow army-like pants.

"_Watch out!!" _Rebecca's warning rings throughout my mind.  
I look up at the demon.  
He's so kind, do I have to be aware him? … Nah!  
His bright red hair is pulled back into a low ponytail; the length runs down past his rear.  
"You know where they are?" I ask him.  
"Well… no…." I can just picture the sheepish look on his features.  
"Oh…," I sigh.  
He stops and looks over his shoulder. "Can you not sniff them out?"  
Shoot! Their sense of smell. "Uhh…, there's too much stuff in the air…." I blush at my excuse, praying that he can't hear my heart that well. Or, at the very least, think I'm still upset of the loss – which I am.  
"True," he buys it.  
Must be a low class, I figure. His sense of smell isn't all that great.  
There is a sudden pang of pain in my breast. "GAH!!!!!!!" I scream. I rip my hand away from his, grip onto my heart, and double over. I continue to scream in pain.  
Why? Why am I feeling this pain again?!  
Tears force their way out of my closed eyes.  
My screams are so high-pitched that birds fly out of the nests, and young/small demons skitter away. I try my best to catch my breath before I scream again. I fail miserably. My body trembles. I continue to bawl and howl in pain.  
The demon, though tense, walks to my side and rubs my lower back.  
My brown, very long hair acts like a curtain; hiding my twisted expression.  
"Shhh…." He tries to sooth me. I just ignore him. "Shhh…." He sounds more urgent.  
He scoops my shaking form up, like a bride, and takes off. I cry into his green sash.  
I just want this pain to go away!!  
It feels as if someone is repeatedly stabbing my heart, with a fine tipped dagger.  
I scream more frequently and my tears come out faster.  
I feel something pinch in between my neck and shoulder.  
Everything goes black.

...

_Plep. Plep. Plep.  
_There's a constant dripping sound echoing around me. I groan in protest, wanting the sound to stop and go back to sleep. How can someone sleep peacefully if there's such an annoying sound?  
I attempt to move my arm, but grunt in pain. My eyes are heavy with sleep as I open them. Blinking back the blurriness, they widen. My mouth slowly opens and an ear-splitting scream tears from my vocal cords, and large amounts of tears fall from my eyes.  
There are two bodies in front of me: Rebecca and Mark. I scream again, noticing the smell and sight of the blood. In Rebecca's left breast is a dagger; blood soaks her kimono. Mark is in the worst of shape; he's covered in blood. I scream and sob at the sight.

The smell, oh the smell!! The putrid smell brings back painful, dreadful memories for me.  
I shake my head to rid of the faces, voices, and stench. I whine at my failure. But I try to push them back, back into the dark corners of my mind.  
I look back down at Rebecca and Mark, and sob. They're tied down to slab stone tables, with rope.  
I try to move my arms again, only to fail again.  
I try to move my stiff legs, failure.  
I weep. I begin to imagine what will happen to me; I tremble.  
They'll surely torture me, until I beg for death! They can't kill me if I hand over my Heart Crystal, though.  
I don't want to die, but I don't want to stay here all by myself either.  
I chew on my lower lip, the salty taste of my tears enter my mouth.  
There's the sudden pang of pain in my chest again, only this time it goes throughout my entire body. I scream in agony. I aim to break free. The bindings, the chains nearly crush my wrists and ankles. I scream again at the raw feeling. My head hangs.  
I can't break free….  
I try to catch my breath as I look around me.  
We're in a dimly lit dungeon. There are shackles on the left and right of me; I cringe at the sight of abnormal skeletons. I sniffle and gaze out the little barred window, seeing the red moon brings back the previous night's dream. Despite the sight in front of my body, a small smile goes across my lips as I remember it. But frown soon after and tears fall from the corners of my eyes.  
"Please help…." I whisper.  
If only he were real! My mind screams.  
"Oh, but he is real." I snap my head forward, looking at the open doorway, at the familiar voice.  
"Get me out of here! Please!!" I beg.  
His features darken and a sickening smirk goes across his lips. His violet eyes are just as evil looking. His footsteps terrifyingly echo off the empty walls.  
My breath hitches in my throat as his hand rests on the left side of my face. His demonic eyes bore into my human ones.  
He slowly runs his thumb underneath my eye. "Why so tense…, Gloria?"

Damn-it! I was supposed to watch out for him!!  
He chuckles. "But of course you were."  
My eyes widen if fright.  
He can hear my thoughts?  
"Yes, I can." He tells me.  
"What have you done…?" I whisper at him.  
His thumb's claw pierces my skin. I flinch on reflex, but I felt nothing. His claw sluggishly goes down to the corner of my lip. He retracts his hand. From just below my eye I see white sparkles; my wound is healing itself.  
"We've down everything possible to get your Heart Crystal out of you." he tells me. "Drowning you, hanging you, ripping you from limb to limb, setting you on fire, snapping you in half," with each way of killing me his grin got wider. "Of course you were still unconscious. You, also, healed quickly." He shows his white fangs. I cringe as visuals of what my body went through come to my mind.  
"But they," he jerks his head toward Kitty-Cat-chan and Ookami. "Weren't as lucky as you, Kitsune."  
I gaze at my friends, practically family. My vision becomes blurry with new found tears. I hang my head in shame.  
If none of us separated they would still be here…. I whine.  
"No, that's not true." He grips onto both sides of my wet, tear-stained face. His voice is mocking. "We would've found some way to separate you three." He barks out his laughter.  
I shake my head; his hands fall to his sides. I cry into my left bicep, my brown tresses acting like a sheer curtain.  
This smell, and this painful feeling, it's all too much for me!  
"Oh-ho~!" he sings. He pulls back my hair. "What are these images I see?"  
It doesn't take a genius to know that was a rhetorical question, and that he now has the Crystal of Knowing.  
"Get out…." I can just feel him digging through my mind. "Get out!" I shake my head, as if that would get him out.  
He chuckles at my pathetic attempts. "How interesting…."  
"Get out!!" my scream bounces off the walls.  
"Hmmm, isn't this some sort of human holiday? Christmas, am I right?"  
I chew on my lower lip as tears force their way out of my eyes.  
"And what is this: your mother placing you in somewhere, a closet maybe; strange men, _thieves_, bursting in; them tearing _everything _down; and… what's this?!" he grips onto my face. "They killed your family…."  
I continue to cry; as the images of my dying parents returns to my mind, and the ruined holiday. I feeling so helpless, like I've could of down SOMETHING to save them!!  
"You loath them, right, the thieves." His cool, alcohol scented breath tickles my ear.  
I nod.  
"What if I told that you were serving them?"  
What? My eyes widen that the very thought. There's no possible way!  
"And that Youko Kurama, the cold-hearted one and one in your dreams, are the same person?"  
My body trembles. I almost kissed a thief?!?!!  
Wait…. Did I really… really….  
An image of us kissing, many nights ago, flashes through my mind.

"OH!!" he sounds astounded, at what he sees. "He kissed you! And he's so flirtatious in your dreams!"  
Sick bastard! Get out!!  
He chuckles. "Yet, he's a cold hearted bastard in real life."  
"Shut-up!" I pull my head out of his grasp. "Shut-up, shut-up, shut-up!!!" I shake my head.  
I cry.  
Why must I be so helpless? Why can't I be strong like my friends?!  
The demon chuckles in a sinister way. "Why did they call you 'Kitsune'?" much to my dismay he grasps onto my chin. "You are far too idiotic; a real kitsune wouldn't have fallen for such an easy trick." I feel is free hand slide down my side and his eyes roaming my body. "Your looks are just painfully normal: brown hair and eyes. Your body is just so… so," he sighs and shakes his head.  
"Stop," I beg.  
I'm depressed enough as it is! Tears begin to fall from my eyes, and join in with the sound of falling water.  
He places his right hand over my left breast; I tense at the unwanted touch. He leans in. "All you have to do is hand over your Heart Crystal, and it'll be over."  
Hand over my Heart Crystal?  
"Unlike your friends," he holds out his hands, for me to see, and there are two levitating, shimmering crystals – one in each hand. Both are light purple, but in the center there are different colors. In his left the crystal has a light blue color, while the other has a dark green. Rebecca and Mark.  
Tears continue to fall from my eyes.  
He closes his hands, absorbing their power. His body glows.  
"No!!" I scream in protest. I attempt to break free, but wince at the numbing sensation.  
"Unlike your friends," he begins again. "You have to hand over your Crystal."  
If I hand it over, I'll die.  
I sniffle.  
Please someone help!  
I begin to chew on my lower lip.  
The demon takes hold my chin again. I'm forced to look into his violet eyes.  
"There is no one to come and save you." He tells me. I let out a sob. He already saw so many things, so many things that I wanted to hide from other people.

"Jarith-sama!!!" another demon, one with long black hair and two copper eyes, slams open the door that the demon, Jarith, closed once he entered. His skin glows from the light behind him. "Youko Kurama and his band of thieves are at our borders!"  
"Nani?!" Jarith barks.  
Youko… Kurama…?  
An unwanted pain slowly begins well-up in my gut, and wraps around my heart.  
"Stop them by any means!"  
"Hai, Milord!" the demon servant leaves.  
Jarith turns his attention back to me.  
"Now," he begins. "Care to hand over that Heart Crystal?"  
What's the point in resisting anymore? Even if Youko comes in and gets me out of here, he'll just kill me. He is a thief after all and thieves are cold-hearted monsters. What makes him so different? To make it worse he's a demon, a demonic thief!  
The worst….  
"I… I…"  
"Yes?" he's getting impatient.  
"I," I swallow a lump in my throat. "I give up my-"

"_Don't do it!!!"  
_Two extremely familiar voices sound. My moist eyes widen and I look around.  
Didn't Jarith hear them? … Guess not.  
I look behind him. I don't believe my eyes!  
Rebecca and Mark…. They're… they're….  
With great difficulty I swallow down a lump in my throat.  
"You give up what!?"  
I ignore his roar and continue to stare at them.  
Rebecca is wearing a light blue, silk, off the shoulder dress. That I imagine falls down to her ankles. She holds an ancient, yet glorious, looking book close to her chest.  
Mark is dressed up like a knight, with silver armor. A sword is at his at his side, the hilt is dark brown with emerald jewels.  
"_Don't you DARE hand that over!!" _they both shout.  
I absently nod my head.  
"What are you nodding at?" Jarith shouts.  
The painful feeling in my chest slowly dissipates into something wonderful. The pressure around my wrists and ankles melts away.  
I glare at him. "I'm _not_ giving up my Heart Crystal!"  
The Crystal of Knowing and Courage float out of Jarith's chest and goes into mine. I suddenly know more than I ever did before and I feel unstoppable.  
Everything whites out.

...

I float aimlessly about in this white nothingness.  
I hear nothing.  
I see nothing but white.  
I feel nothing. The pain that was in my chest before is gone.  
My hair and clothing act like they're underwater, yet I can breathe just fine.  
I turn my head left and right. My body feels like its asleep, heavy.  
What is this place? I wonder. I can't be dead, can I? I never said I gave up my Crystal….  
My nose involuntarily sniffs the 'air'.  
Roses?  
I smile at the scent.  
Why do roses always make me smile?

"_Bark!"  
_I pull myself up onto my feet, looking for the creature that made that sound.  
"_Bark!" _A different one sounds.  
Their barks echo. I noted  
No soon later where there numerous, different types of barking.  
"_Nani?" _my soft voice echoes.  
I look around me. Small arctic foxes prance and twirl around my feet barking. I raise an eyebrow at them.  
Aren't foxes supposed to be shy of humans?  
They come to a slow stop.  
The little foxes sit down, facing me, and blink at me with their coal-black eyes. I blink as they smile.  
"_Bark!" _they all sound at once; I flinch.  
They lay down with their rears, and tails, in the air.  
I squeal and shield my face, on reflex, as they jump at me. Only I don't feel them, but I feel comforting warmth surrounds me.

The white slowly fades to black.  
I bring down my arms and look at them.  
Good thing I'm not afraid of the dark….  
I knit my brows together as I see a floating orb coming up to me.  
"_Gloria," _the light blue sounds.  
"_Rebecca is that really you?" _tears brim my eyes.  
"_Yes."_ The orb tells me. _"Please follow me!" _her voice is urgent.  
"_Okay," _I nod my head and walk behind her. We only take three steps, but I see a flickering light on the 'ground'.  
"_Mark!!" _my yell echoes. I run up to him.  
I fall to my knees and scoop up the dark green orb in my hands.  
"_Mark?" _my voice trembles.  
He doesn't respond, but his light slightly fades. It pains me to see him like this! I look up to Rebecca but gasp as she slowly falls down, her light flickering. Putting Mark in one hand, I catch Rebecca with the other.  
"_Why….? What…?"  
_They don't answer me.  
"_You guys!" _my tears fall into my lap. _"Please don't go!!"  
_My hands suddenly glow a bright, blinding white. I close my eyes.  
Once I open them again, I see Mark and Rebecca are gone.  
"_Don't worry," _I hear Rebecca whisper. _"Our Heart Crystals are back now, and we're fine."  
_"_Thanks, Gloria." _Their voices sound simultaneously.  
They're gone, out of my mind.

I close my eyes and sigh.  
I open my eyes and my body goes tense. My heart gains a pang of pain. I'm surrounded by silver roses, and my kimono transformed into the white dress.  
"_Get out,"_ I growl. My hands form into fists.  
I hear the flowers move behind me.  
He's a thief! A cold hearted thief!  
RUN!!  
"_Get out!!"_ I scream.  
I bolt up sensing him right behind me. Whipping around I see that he lost his 'normal' playful expression.  
Why is he causing me so much pain? Tears fall from my eyes.  
He steps forward, I step backward.  
I grasp onto my head, and shake it. _"Wake-up, wake-up, wake-up!" _I whisper, knowing fully well that I'm dreaming.  
He's a thief, run!!  
I bite onto my lower lip.  
"_Gloria…." _He reaches out.  
I flinch and back away from the dark clawed hand.  
"_No!" _I scream.

...

I gasp as my eyes snap open and I bolt up.  
I gotta get out!  
I rip off the blankets and dash out of the white room. My vision becomes blurry, as I forbid tears from falling out.  
I run out of the hideout, and to somewhere I don't know.

* * *

**Author's Note: *continues to wave pendant in front of you* You will leave a review, you will leave a review....**

**Kuronue: *walks in* Has anyone seen my-- *sees me grinning sheepishly***

**Me: *wiggles fingers* Hi~!!!! Kuronue~!!!!!**

**Kuro: Give me back my pendant!!!! *launches at me***

**Me: *runs out of the way, holds the pendant close to chest, growls* Not until I get my reviews!!!!**

**Kuro: What does my pendant and your reviews have to do with the same thing!!?**

**Me: Your pendant** **can hypnotize people!!!**

**Youko: *crosses arms, grins* DUH!!**

**Kuro: T^T Just give it back! Damn-it!! **

***Kuronue chases me as I put on his pendant***

**Youko: *a bystander, wiggles his ears and tail, sighs* How very mature.... *looks toward the readers* Please leave a review, so that Kuronue can get his pendant back.**

**Me: *squeals as Kuro throws his scythes***


End file.
